


Family Time

by Hashtagmavin



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Family, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-06
Updated: 2013-10-05
Packaged: 2017-12-28 13:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 24,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/992646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hashtagmavin/pseuds/Hashtagmavin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Kid AU then becomes a Teen AU) Michael’s never gotten along with children his own age. But there’s something about that bouncy British idiot named Gavin that just warms his heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Hashtagmavin.tumblr.com on July 10 2013

Michael was only six years old when he met Gavin.

Usually kids at that age are able to make friends easily. Always so eager to share their toys and plays games like tag and hide-and-seek. Not Michael.

Geoff was concerned over his son’s temper and refusal to play well with other children. He’d tried taking him to the playground, but that only resulted in another kids getting a mouthful of sand when Michael shoved them roughly to the ground. Daycare also proved that he wasn’t fond of sharing or playing nicely with others.

He’d be given reasonable time outs, and the boy always followed the rules when it came to Geoff playing games with him. Michael had a huge soft spot for his adoptive father Geoff, and he treated other adults with respect too. But for some inexplicable reason, he just couldn’t get along well with others his age.

If Geoff had a dollar for every failed attempt at trying to get Michael to make friends, they’d be living in a mansion instead of the small three bedroom house they currently resided in.

Whenever he tried to ask him about it, Michael would just respond with, “I don’t like the other kids.” Trying to get any other information out of him would just result in the silent treatment.

Michael just didn’t like playing with other children.

 

“I just don’t know what to do.” Geoff mutters, burying his head in his hands while his elbows rest on the shiny table top. His adopted son’s antisocial behavior had been stressing him out for the past couple of weeks now. “It can’t be healthy, right? He needs to be playing with other kids and making friends or some shit.”

“Don’t worry too much about it, maybe he’s just shy.” Griffon puts a comforting hand on his shoulder, but it has no affect on the man’s stress levels.

“The kids brutal, Griffon!” he exclaims, “He punched another kid in the nose at school yesterday just because he asked him if he wanted to play tag!”

“Have you considered taking him to therapy? Maybe that could help.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think he’d react well to therapy. I want to at least try out everything I can before I even think about that.”

Geoff and Griffon had been dating now for about three years, and she’d known Michael for just as long. She’d witnessed his hatred of other children first hand when she’d go to the park with them.

But Michael liked Griffon. She had lots of pretty tattoo’s like Geoff and her nose piercing made her look really cool. Her short blonde pigtails reminded him of the little girls in his class, but it didn’t look dumb on her like it did with other girls. Sometimes she’d let him watch as she did her woodcarvings, and it was always so fascinating to the young boy.

She knew that there wasn’t anything wrong with him mentally. He was a good kid. He had likes, dislikes, interests, favourite toys, and games. He got along well with adults and even teenagers. He’d get super pumped over going to the movies or playing a video game. The only problem just happened to be one that couldn’t be overlooked.

Geoff adopted Michael about five years ago when his parents died in a car crash and he was only a year old. They were really close friends of Geoff, and wanted him to take their son in case if anything happened to them. But taking a one year old under his wing wasn’t something that he accomplished easily, and now Michael’s lack of social activity was something he blamed on his bad parenting skills.

Griffon had a son too. Around three years ago she’d adopted a boy named Ryan, but he was nine years old. He and Michael got along well enough, and they had a brotherly relationship. Ryan was the youngest friend that he had.

He needed some friends that were his own age.

The two were currently playing a video game in the living room, while Geoff and Griffon drank their morning coffee at the kitchen table. She’d only come over to drop off her son while she went to run some errands, but he suckered her into downing a cup because he needed somebody to vent to.

She let out a sigh. She loved Geoff and Michael with all of her heart, and she was worried about them both. Michael because of his obvious refusal to get along well with other children, Geoff because he was beating himself up over it.

“He’ll come around.” she attempts to reassure him again, even though she’s not so sure of it herself.

He just shakes his head in worried disbelief before he takes a drink from his mug. Maybe talking about it wasn’t the best idea, so he decided to change the subject. “Did you hear anything back from the adoption agency regarding that kid?”

“Actually yes!” she beamed, and Geoff smiled at her sudden excitement.

Griffon loved kids, and the prospect of adopting another one was so much fun to her. She talked sometimes about one day having a huge family of adopted children, and Geoff liked to think of himself as being a part of it one day.

It was a nice dream, but they didn’t know that it would eventually become a reality.

Ever since Ryan entered her life, she’d just been itching to adopt another child. The more the merrier seemed to be her motto, considering the fact that she’d already taken on a motherly role for Michael.

“What’s his name?”

“Gavin Free. He’s from England. Ryan and I got to talk to him over Skype a few days ago and he’s the  _cutest_  little thing ever. He talks at a hundred miles a second and makes up all these silly words and questions. I’ve never seen an orphaned child so optimistic. He’s like a little bundle of constant energy. He’s actually the same age as Michael.” as she describes her future son, her eyes sparkle with excitement. Although she’s hesitant with her next sentence, “Maybe they could be friends?”

Even  _she_  knows that Michael making friends with someone his own age is wishful thinking.

“I doubt it.” he mutters, but smiles warmly at her, not wanting to dampen her good mood. Griffon’s love of helping children was a huge reason why he fell in love with her.

They’d actually met at an adoption agency. Long story short, she was filling out some kind of forms to finalize Ryan’s adoption, and Geoff just so happened to be there the same day looking through Michael’s file to double check on his allergies.

It was practically love at first sight and after they met it didn’t take long for them to start dating.

“When does he get to America?” he asks as they finish their coffee and stand up.

“They’ll be flying him in, in two weeks! Ryan and I have been decorating a little room for him already and everything. We’re so excited!” she gushes, practically shaking with happiness.

Geoff laughs as she launches herself at him for a hug. He loved Griffon so much.

“Mom? Are you leaving now?” a voice asks.

The two untangle from one another and look at the two boys standing in the kitchen doorway. Ryan was obviously taller than Michael, considering the fact that he was older. He was ruffling his hand through the younger boys messy curly red hair in a cute brotherly way.

Michael and Ryan often referred to the other as they’re brother, and Geoff couldn’t help but worry if Michael would treat this kid Gavin like that. But judging by his track record, he’d probably hate the poor kid immediately and then punch him in the face.

“Yes! I need to go get some groceries, and then go fill out some more forms regarding Gavin’s adoption. I’ll be back in a few hours.” she responds. She gives Geoff a quick kiss on the lips, and then kisses the two other boys on the forehead before bidding goodbye and leaving.

“Who’s Gavin?” Michael questions.

“He’s my new little brother!” Ryan informs him, “He’s six years old, like you!”

Geoff just watches Michael’s face remain unimpressed. “He sounds stupid.”

They haven’t even met and already any hope of Michael and Gavin becoming friends has went down the drain.

*

“’Ello! My name’s Gavin!” the young boy said in a volume that was much too high as he stuck his hand out, wanting to shake.

Michael just looked at his hand, and then back up at Gavin. His eyebrows furrowed in suspicion and annoyance.

His hair was light brown and it stuck up in all different directions. He wore a striped purple polo shirt and tan shorts. His sneakers were untied and his legs and arms had different colored band-aids scattered across the exposed skin.

Geoff, Griffon, and Ryan don’t speak a word as they watch Michael stare down the other boy. They’re all just silently praying that this won’t end badly, and that Michael won’t hate him on the spot. But judging by the glare Gavin was receiving, it wasn’t looking too good.

Gavin doesn’t let Michael’s obvious hatred affect him in anyway. It’s almost as though he’s completely oblivious to it. He just continues to smile that toothy grin of his as he holds out his hand, not faltering in anyway at all.

“What’s your name?” Gavin asks, finally letting his hand drop, realizing that Michael is not going to shake it. The content smile is still spread across his face.

“Michael.” he mumbles out.

“Michael!” Gavin repeats, but his accent butchers it completely in a way that makes him even more annoyed.

“It’s  _Michael_ , not  _Mi-cool_ , you dummy.” he states, angrily.

“Don’t be mean.” Geoff reminds him, but nobody pays attention to it.

Gavin still isn’t affected by his anger or insults, and just begins talking, continuing to pronounce his name in that odd way. “ I really like your glasses, Michael! They make you look like Harry Potter! Do you want to play a game or something?”

“No.” Michael says, his voice rising a little.

“Let’s go play outside! It’ll be fun, Michael!” Gavin grabs his hand and begins pulling the older boy towards the door.

“It’s  _Michael_!” he yells, obviously still not very happy. He allows himself to be dragged by Gavin, but looks like he’s ready to punch him in the face as soon as he stops.

“Come on, Ryan! Come play with us!” Gavin calls out.

Ryan looks up at Geoff and Griffon with concern. They’re  _all_  concerned. Worried that Michael’s going to beat the living shit out of the young boy, and never make friends with kids his own age.

“Go! Go!” they both whisper at him, making shooing hand motions to follow the two boys outside. Ryan quickly runs out the door to make sure that there isn’t a wrestling match going on in the backyard already.

The adults turn to each other, their faces both wear an expression of defeat.

“Think that went well?” Geoff asks, already knowing the answer.

“Nope.” she mutters, then lets out a loud groan, throwing her head forward to rest on his shoulders in an ‘I give up’ fashion.

“Goddammit. What are we going to do now? Michael hates every kid in the world, and now we’ve literally just  _given_ him a kid to beat up 24/7. Why did we think this was a good idea?”

“I don’t know…because we’re idiots?”

“Sounds about right.”

The two just stand there, letting the frustration over the situation overtake them. Things were going to be so much more complicated now. Gavin’s an excitable and constantly happy kid, and if Michael’s already annoyed by this, then it’s going to be a bumpy road from now on.

How are they going to stop Michael from beating up Gavin? The task seems almost impossible.

“Now what?” Griffon questions, lifting her head off of his shoulder.

“I don’t know. Try to keep them in separate rooms whenever you guys come over? Buy more band-aids for Gavin? Buy a straight jacket for Michael? Hell, Griffon.” he’s at a total loss at what to say, “I just don’t know.”

“Maybe it won’t be  _so_ bad. I mean, at least Gavin doesn’t hate him back?” she offers.

“Yeah,” he mutters sarcastically, “Lucky you, you get the non-violent half of this.”

She smiles at that a little. “It could be worse. He could have punched him in the face as soon as he walked in.”

“Mom! Geoff!” Ryan runs back in through the door. He’s out of breath and panting, “You have to get out here now!”

Then the sound of Gavin screaming is heard through the open door.

Geoff and Griffon both share a panicked and worried look before running out after Ryan as fast as they can.

So many possibilities run through both of their heads. Is Michael beating Gavin up? Has he hit him? Kicked him? Slapped him? Punched him? All of these seem to be plausible at this point.

The only thing running through Geoff’s head is where he last put the first aid kit. As soon as he see’s how badly Gavin’s hurt, that’s what he’ll need to run for straight away.

“Michael!” Gavin screams echoes throughout the house from outside, “Michael stop!”

Fuck, this entire thing  _really_  wasn’t a good idea.

They finally get to the backyard, but what they see makes them both stop dead in their tracks.

Gavin is screaming, but not due to pain and torture. Michael is holding him down and tickling him. They’re both grinning and smiling, and Gavin begs him to let him go.

“Let me go, Michael!”

“Never!” he cries out dramatically, although Gavin does finally wiggle out of his grasp and begins running away. The two laugh even louder as Michael chases after him.

Both Geoff and Griffon just stand there next to Ryan, they’re mouths dropped open and eyes wide as they watch the two boys run around the yard, giggling, cheering, and having fun.

“They’re…” Geoff begins, trying to find words, “They’re playing…and getting along…”

Gavin’s a bit quicker than Michael is, but he’s also more clumsy. Griffon winces when she see Gavin trip up over his own untied shoelaces, and fall face first to the ground. She fears for a moment that he’s about to cry, but when he lifts his face from the grass he has a smile on his face.

“Gavin, you dummy!” Michael yells at him, but Gavin laughs so loud at it that a grin forms across his face. He even reaches down to help the boy up.

Gavin brushes the dirt off of his shirt before looking up. His eyes widen as they settle on something behind Michael. “You have a tree house!?” he asks in awe.

Michael turns around to look at the tree house in question. It was the one Geoff built for him, along with his friend Jack. The two spent hours up in that tree trying to make the perfect tree house for him, and he ended up spending hours playing in it by himself. Maybe having somebody in there with him would be a good change of pace. It could be fun.

“Yeah… Wanna go play in it?” he asks, still a little hesitant on the thought of having somebody to play with.

“Do I ever!”

“Race you there!” he challenges, but before Gavin can prepare for the run, Michael pushes him back down to the ground and begins running as fast as he can towards the tree house without looking back.

Gavin doesn’t take any offense to it at all, and just laughs that usual loud and happy laugh of his before picking himself up and running after him.

The two adults look away from the scene to share a look of disbelief.

“I can’t believe it.” Ryan states, still in shock himself. Even  _he_  thought that this was a recipe for disaster that wouldn’t end well. He didn’t want his new baby brother to get a black eye and a bloody nose to match it.

“Michael’s actually…being friendly towards another kid his age…” Griffon says slowly.

“Do you know what this means?” Geoff asks. The two others look at him in confusion. “We did it!” he yells excitedly, a huge grin spreading across his face.

Ryan and Griffon both laugh and they all cheer in almost a mock celebration as they hug each other at their success. Mainly because  _they_  really didn’t really do anything at all. Gavin was the one that somehow managed to worm his way into Michael’s heart.

Geoff can’t stop grinning as he hugs Griffon’s back toward his chest, resting his chin on her shoulder. Ryan rests his weight against his side, and Geoff puts his other arm around the boy’s shoulders. They all watch Michael and Gavin play together in content happiness.

They have a weird little family, Geoff thinks to himself. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

*

Although Michael had warmed up to the idea of having a friend his age rather quickly, it didn’t mean that he actually acknowledged that Gavin was his friend. He’d deny it until he was blue in the face.

When Geoff first asked him if he and Gavin were friends after that day they first met, Michael said “No! Of course not! I don’t like him. His voice is dumb.” And he’d still act reluctant and suspicious whenever Griffon brought Gavin over to play. It wouldn’t take long for the two to be talking, laughing, and playing games just as they were last time they were together.

But just because Michael got a friend his own age, didn’t change the fact that he was still an easily angered boy with an explosive temper. Some things would just never change.

Gavin would also never change from being loud, excitable, chatty, and a little bit slow in his thought process. It would be impossible to count how many times Michael called him dumb or stupid, and even if Geoff scolded him for it, it would probably never stop.

Watching the two boys become closer friends was entertaining to say the least. Geoff and Griffon had to sort out so many little arguments between them where Michael was screaming at Gavin while he just laughed and refused to take anything he said seriously.

Michael was too angry, and Gavin was too happy. But they fit together like puzzle pieces, and it didn’t take long for them to become inseparable.

“Mr. Ramsey, we need you to come to the school right away. Your son punched another student in the face at recess.” a voice informs Geoff through his phone.

“Fuck, I’ll be right there.” he responds, not bothering to censor his language.

He lets out a loud groan after he hangs up the phone.

He thought that Michael was past all of this. The boy hadn’t had a violent outburst like this since Gavin started going to his school with him. Teachers would even call him to tell him how shocked they were at their friendship. He even stopped hurting other kids and started playing games with Gavin instead.

The young British boy had helped Michael’s social interactions immensely. Geoff hadn’t received a phone call to come down to the school since the boys first met two months ago.

Both he and Gavin were only in grade two, and Gavin was the youngest in the class. But his birthday was only a month away.

Geoff was surprised to find his girlfriend in the principal’s office when he walked in.

“Griffon? What are you doing here?”

She didn’t respond, and just simply pointed at her own son, who was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the principal’s desk. Michael was sitting in the other. From this angle he could only see the back of their heads.

“Mr. Ramsey, thank you for joining us.” Principal Davis said as she smiled warmly at him.

“What happened?” he questions, but his eyes widen when Gavin turned around to look at him, and he sees the boys eye is swollen and slightly bruised. He’s holding an icepack to it, and judging by the way he’s wincing, he’s in pain.

He curses to himself internally. After weeks of acting  _mostly_  kind towards Gavin, and becoming the closest thing Michael’s had to a friend, he finally snapped and hit him the same way he’s hit other kids in his class.

Sighing, he prepares himself for a verbal lashing from Principal Davis as she talks about Michael’s awful violent outbursts. He’s been in this room enough times to know the drill.

“There was a fight on the playground today.” she states, giving Michael a stern look. Geoff doesn’t have the see his face to know that he’s glaring back at her.

He makes a mental note to have more talks with Michael about controlling his anger.

“Scott Miller is currently in the nurse’s office with his parents. Michael gave him a black eye and a bloody lip.” she informs Geoff, not looking very pleased.

“Wait…he got in a fight with  _Scott Miller_? Then why is Gavin beat up?” he questions.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Griffon states.

Nobody says anything for a while until Geoff tries prodding his adopted son into talking. “…Michael?”

“What?” he mutters.

“Care to explain?”

Michael lets out an annoyed sigh before finally turning around in his seat to face him, sitting on his knees and his hands clenching the back on the chair.

He’s slightly relieved to see that his son isn’t physically injured in any way, but he usually never is. Michael always had the upper hand in fights, and Geoff never had to worry about his own son dealing with bullies. Mainly because Michael  _was_  the bully.

“Scotty  _deserved_  to be hit, Geoff!” Michael cries.

Geoff is actually confused by how desperate he looks at the moment. Usually Michael would just sit there with his eyebrows furrowed and his arms crossed in anger, but right now his face was pleading for Geoff to listen to him.

Michael refused to act the same way towards his principal, because he knew that she would never understand or give him the benefit of the doubt. But he trusted his father, and prayed that he would get it.

“Just tell me what happened, buddy.”

The principal always thought that he was too soft on Michael. But he knew that it wasn’t always the boys fault. He just didn’t take well to others, and it was hard for him to let out his frustration lightly.

Principal Davis was always hesitant on Geoff’s parenting methods. He didn’t seem the fatherly type, and although she tried her best not to judge others on their appearances, it was hard when it came to him. When she found out that he was dating Gavin’s mother, Griffon, she also wasn’t very surprised. They both had numerous tattoo’s and piercings, and looked as though they were made for one another.

She knew that it wasn’t Geoff’s fault that Michael was so troubled, but he probably  _could_  try to discipline him a little more.

“When recess first started I didn’t know where Gavin was and I started to look around for him. Then I saw Scotty bullying him and yelling at him, and I ran over as fast as I could and told him to stop or I’d punch him. He told me that I didn’t have the guts and then he punched Gavin in the eye! Then I jumped on him and started punching him as hard as I could.”

Every adult in the room felt the same feeling of surprise.

Oh.

Michael was trying to  _protect_  Gavin. He didn’t get frustrated with him and punch him. He was defending him.

Maybe their friendship has progressed a little more than they’ve all thought.

“So you didn’t hit Gavin?” Griffon asks slowly, trying to wrap her head around the information.

“Of course not! I mean…usually I  _want_ to…But I wouldn’t do that to Gavin. He’s my boy.” Michael states.

He smiles when he sees Gavin give him a big goofy, tooth showing grin.

Watching the small exchange causes Griffon and Geoff to smile at each other.

Maybe Gavin’s a lot better for Michael than they originally thought.

*

“Is Gavin Ryan’s little brother?” Michael asks him one morning as he sits at the kitchen table.

Geoff’s cooking up breakfast for the two of them before it’s time for school. Sometimes he’ll ask questions and talk to his adoptive father, but other times he’s quiet. Up until now he hadn’t said a word other than what he wanted for breakfast.

And it was definitely an odd question. Michael  _knew_ that Gavin was Ryan’s brother, and he’d been around now for about six months. This wasn’t any new information for him.

“Yeah, why?” he asks, turning away from the frying pan filled with eggs to look at Michael.

The expression on his face showed how deeply he was thinking, and Geoff knew that there was about to be a somewhat serious conversation between the two of them.

“Well, Ryan’s  _my_ older brother, isn’t he?”

Geoff and Griffon weren’t married or engaged, but Ryan and Michael just happened to stick to each other in a way that couldn’t be taken as anything other than brotherly. Michael and Ryan didn’t really act like regular siblings though, the two rarely fought. But Ryan would be quick to make sure if his younger brother was okay or healthy if he got hurt or sick. He’d scold him lightly if he did something wrong. But Michael wouldn’t get angry like he usually would if somebody else treated him like that.

When they first began referring to each other as brothers, Geoff felt embarrassed by it. He figured Griffon might not take well to it since it implied that their two families had merged into one and that their relationship might be moving too fast. But she actually loved it, and would encourage it.

Geoff had never witnessed Michael take to anybody any faster than he did to Ryan, other than Gavin.

“Well, yeah. But Ryan can have two younger brothers.” he points out, still not sure where this conversation is going. He thought for a moment that Michael might be jealous of Gavin stealing attention away from Ryan.

Having talks like this with Michael is like treading on thin ice. Saying one thing that he doesn’t want to hear could make the young boy close up entirely and refuse to say anything else. It’s obvious that he’s been thinking about this for a long time, and he’ll continue to think about it if he doesn’t get to have this talk with Geoff. And that’s not something that he wants to happen since Michael appears to be battling with himself internally over this.

Michael doesn’t say anything else, and just furrows his eyebrows as he thinks over what Geoff just said.

“What’s up, buddy?” he asks, turning the stove top off and moving the frying pan to one that’s not hot. The eggs are done anyways, but clearing Michael’s mind is more important than eating.

“Does that mean that Gavin’s  _my_ little brother now?”

“Only if you want him to be.”

“I don’t. I don’t want Gavin to be my brother.” Michael states, nodding a little to himself in confirmation, as though he’s finally come to this decision.

“That’s fine.” Geoff reassures him, “You and Gavin can be whatever you want to be to one another. Griffon and I are totally fine with you two being brothers or just friends. Whatever you two are comfortable with.”

“We’re best friends.” and Geoff’s almost surprised by that statement. It’s the first time he’s heard Michael say out loud that Gavin is his friend. To hear him say  _best_ friend is quite the leap.

“I’m proud of ya’, buddy.” Geoff says, and smiles as he ruffles his curly red hair.

Michael’s confused by that statement, why would Geoff be proud? But he doesn’t think about it long because something else has been bothering him, and he figures now is a good time to talk about it.

He turns back around to get plates for the eggs, but he hears Michael speak again. “I don’t want Gavin to be my little brother.”

Geoff’s about to respond with ‘I know, I get it’ but Michael continues talking. “But I wouldn’t mind  _having_  a little brother.”

That sentence completely throws Geoff off. “Oh.” is the only thing he’s able to say, and he turns around quickly to look at Michael. The boy’s face looks guilty, as though he’d get in trouble for thinking about it.

“You…You want a little brother?”

“…Yeah.” Michael liked how Ryan looked after him and played with him, it was fun. But it would also be fun to have somebody that  _he_  could do that too. “The people that gave you me, gave Griffon Gavin, didn’t they?”

It takes a moment for Geoff to understand what that sentence means. Michael’s pretty smart for his age, but sometimes he has trouble with making sentences sound right.

“Yeah.” he confirms.

“Then would it be alright if we asked them to give us a boy that’s my age?” he asks, “But just a little bit younger.”

“Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, buddy.” Geoff scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, trying to think of a way to explain this to Michael in a way that he’ll understand.

“How? Isn’t Griffon getting another kid? Why will they give her one but not us?”

It was true.

Griffon appeared to be on a children adopting role. She had already begun filling out forms to adopt a five year old girl who was orphaned since birth and had no living relatives. She’s already shown Geoff pictures she’s received of the cute little redheaded girl named Lindsay.

And even though she wouldn’t technically be his kid, he’s excited to have a new addition to their little ‘family’. But Griffon’s completely added him into this without even realizing that she’s doing it. When she was first considering adopting another kid she would say things like “Are you okay with having another kid around?” and “We’ll have another kid!” with so much enthusiasm that Geoff didn’t bother correcting her when she once said that she’d be “their first daughter.” Because technically she wouldn’t be Geoff’s daughter. She’d be Griffon’s daughter.

Their entire ‘family’ was really complicated like that. Geoff and Michael lived together, while Griffon, Ryan, and Gavin lived together.

Ryan would call Griffon by mom, but Geoff by his name. Michael called both Griffon and Geoff by their names. But Gavin called both Griffon his mom, and Geoff his dad. Ryan called both Michael and Gavin his little brothers. Michael and Gavin both referred to Ryan as their older brother. But neither Michael or Gavin thought of themselves as being brothers.

It wasn’t questioned. Nobody cared what they were called in family terms. Michael knew that Geoff wasn’t his real dad, so he just didn’t think to call him that. He was more comfortable calling him by his name. Because that’s who he was. To Michael he was simply Geoff, his father figure.

Geoff never took offense to Michael not calling him dad. He personally doesn’t mind it since he knew Michael’s parents before they died. He knew Michael’s real father and didn’t think that he was anymore his dad because he raised him.

“Well Griffon’s little girl will be younger than you. You could have a little sister.” he points out, trying not to completely diminish Michael’s want for another sibling.

“Maybe.” he shrugs, “But…I kind of wanted a little brother.”

“Michael…” he starts sympathetically, but Michael shakes his head, trying to remove the subject from his brain.

“It doesn’t matter. Can we just forget that I said it?”

“Yeah…sure…” Geoff says slowly.

But he doesn’t forget that Michael said it.

For the next few day and nights it’s constantly buzzing through his mind. The defeated look on his face when he realized that it would probably never happen. The realization that he wouldn’t have a little brother to play with and teach things like Ryan would do with him. Somebody that he and Gavin could play games with.

But wasn’t this a good thing? Michael’s opening up to other children in ways that Geoff never could have imagined. Becoming friends with Gavin has made Michael realize that other kids might not be so bad.

That kid Gavin was like a blessing when it came to Michael’s social tolerance.

Geoff loved Gavin just as much as he loved Michael and Ryan. All three of them felt like his sons, and he’s sure that when Lindsay arrives he’ll think of her as a daughter.

He and Griffon would go out with all of their children as though they were a big family. They’d buy family season passes to amusement parks in the area, sit in the family tables in restaurants they went to.

They’re already adding a new child into their family. So maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to bring in another.

It would certainly help Michael’s tolerance toward other children, and Griffon would be insanely happy with having another child around.

It was only about a week after Michael’s question that he came to a final decision on the matter.

And a few months after Lindsay joined Griffon’s side of the family, a little boy with short black hair and glasses named Ray, joined Geoff’s side.

*

Ray and Lindsay were the perfect additions to their family.

Ray was about to be placed into foster care after his mother dropped him off at the adoption agency with only a note. All it explained was that his name was Ray, he was five years old, and that she couldn’t afford to give him the life that she wished she could. It was quite obvious too, judging by how skinny the boy was and the clothes he wore were baggy and probably hand me downs.

They asked him questions, trying to get information about his mother, but the only things he knew were little things about himself. Like his age, his first name, the fact that he loves roses, hates cake, and loves to play video games. He was like a regular five year old boy and he seemed totally oblivious to the fact that his mother left him.

When Geoff and Ray first met, the kid took an instant liking to him. Kids usually liked Geoff anyways. Griffon always compared him to a big teddy bear, much to his annoyance.

He didn’t ask him about his mother though, and simply tried to get the boy to talk about his interests and favourite things, so that he could learn more about him. Just because Ray seemed to like him, didn’t mean that he couldn’t change his mind.

Usually kids in situations like this would be crying and sobbing, refusing to go with anybody other than their parents. But Ray was completely indifferent. He loved Geoff and Michael, and began calling them father and brother happily.

He, Michael, and Ray became friends instantly and played video games all of the time.

Ray told them about how before he came to live with them he would find quarters and then when he had enough he would use them to play games at an arcade. “I’m really good at the claw game. Once I won  _two_ prizes in  _one_ turn!” he boasted once. And neither Geoff or Michael doubted it, since the kid had some kind of crazy natural ability to play video games.

Most of the games they own are kid friendly, but Geoff does have his own collection of first person shooters. He told Ray and Michael not to play those ones because they were too violent for such young children.

“Geoff! Geoff! Ray’s playing one of your video games!” Michael ran into his room screaming one day.

“What! I told you two not to play those ones!” Geoff yells, although he doubts Ray even got past the menu screen. The kid’s only five years old after all.

“But Geoff, he’s playing it and he’s  _really_ good!”

“I’m sure he is.” he rolls his eyes and walks into the living room, prepared to turn off the game that obviously wouldn’t even be played properly, and then scold the young boy.

But he feels his eyes widen in shock when he sees that Ray is  _actually_  playing the game. The character is running around the screen and snipes another character in a way that could only be described as expert.

“What the hell!” Geoff yells, completely shocked.

This kid is five years old!

Fucking five!

And he’s better at a shooting game than any person Geoff has ever seen! How did he even learn the controls that fast!? He could probably sell this kid to the government or something and make millions!

Both Ray and Ryan are the geniuses of their family. Ray when it comes to video games, and Ryan when it comes to…basically everything.

*

One night Geoff was sitting on the floor of his living room with Ryan and Griffon with multiple pieces of an unassembled bookcase and screwdrivers scattered around them. Michael, Gavin, Ray, and Lindsay run around them, playing games and shouting to each other.

Ray isn’t really a big fan of the outdoors, so when he officially joined the family, they didn’t play outside very often anymore (unless they played without Ray.) Much to Geoff displeasure, it meant that things around the house were much louder.

“Stop running! You’re going to trip over something!” Griffon yells after them.

The three of them were putting together a  _huge_  bookshelf that Geoff bought earlier in the day, and it was proving to be a lot more difficult than they originally thought. Especially with multiple children running around being little nuisances.

“How many screws came with this thing?” Griffon sighs, as she dumps out the little bag filled with screws for the bookshelf.

“Well, what’s sixty four times nine?” Geoff mutters. It turns out that putting together a shelf is a lot more stressful than he imagined and it was having an effect on his attitude.

He sees Ryan begin to open his mouth, and cuts him off before he can speak. “Don’t answer that. I’ll get creeped out.”

“Five hundred and seventy six.” Ryan states, without skipping a beat.

“What the fuck do you feed that kid?” he glares over at Griffon, who smirks at her sons natural genius.

“Gavin! Shut your dumb mouth!” Michael screams from the other room.

“Michael!” Geoff yells out, scolding the boy for being so rude. But this is natural behavior by now, and it will probably never change.

Currently the three boys were playing their favourite superhero game. The one where Ray and Gavin are superhero’s named X-Ray and Vav, Michael is their arch nemesis named Mogar, and Lindsay is the girl they have to save from him. The game usually ends with Michael punching Gavin in one way or another, and the boy crying.

It’s these moments that are Griffon’s favorites. Where they’re all sitting around like a family, building a bookshelf with her son and the man she loves so much sometimes it’s painful. Little kids running around, playing and fighting.

It’s nice. And she knows that she couldn’t ask for anything better.

“How long has it been since we got Ray?” she questions, as she attempts to put two pieces of wood together. And Geoff can’t help but smile at the word ‘we.’

Griffon’s amazing at carving wood and making beautiful art out of it, but it seems that making shitty bookshelves from Ikea is something that nobody is good at.

“About four months now.” Geoff responds.

“He’s adjusting  _really_  well.” she states, and it’s true. Ray took to everybody very easily.

Both Ray  _and_  Lindsay were really easy to get along with kids.

When Geoff first met Lindsay he knew that she was a hilarious little girl. She says hi to him when Griffon introduces them, and then says “I like your beard. It’s like Santa’s but brown.”

“Yeah, it is.” Geoff smirks.

“When I get older, I wanna grow a beard.”

“That’d be awesome!”

“Yeah! Gavin says that girls can’t grow beards because they’re girls. But I don’t think he’s right. I think Gavin’s dumb.”

“You and me both, kiddo.” he grins.

It was an ongoing joke in the family that Gavin wasn’t the brightest kid around. He’d make idiotic decisions, dumb jokes, and say words that nobody could differentiate between if it was British slang or something that the boy came up with entirely on his own.

Michael always got mad and yelled at him whenever he did it. But without even realizing it, everybody (including Michael) would use Gavin’s ridiculous made up words in their everyday conversations.

“So you’ve already met Gavin, Ryan, and Michael, right?” he asks her.

“Uh huh! I like having so many brothers. It’s nice.” she muses. “I also like having a mom too. I haven’t had a mom or brothers before.”

Griffon told Lindsay she was going to meet Geoff, and that she’d be there. But Lindsay was persistent on meeting him by herself. She liked meeting new people, and Gavin told her earlier “Dad’s really cool! He has tattoo’s like mum and a big beard!”

Said conversation is what prompted the beard argument between the two.

Geoff doesn’t really know how to respond to that. He doesn’t want to say anything about her life before she went to live with Griffon in fear of saying something wrong and upsetting her. “Is that so?” he asks, while scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably.

But Lindsay doesn’t notice the awkward air. Although she does seem to get a little shy and bashful. “Gavin calls you daddy.” she points out.

“Yeah, he does.”

“But Michael and Ryan don’t. Why not?” she questions innocently. It’s the first time anyone’s ever really said it out loud.

“It’s…I don’t really know. It’s complicated…Why do you ask?”

“I’ve never had a daddy before.” she looks almost sad for a moment, but then gives him a huge smile, as if she’s trying to win him over or convince him to do something for her. “Will you be  _my_  daddy too? Just like how you’re Gavin, Michael, and Ryan’s daddy?”

“Of course, Lindsay. If you want me to be.” he smiles down at her warmly.

Her smile turns into a huge open mouthed grin, and her eyes sparkle with happiness. She lifts her arms up and jumps around, begging to be picked up.

He can’t help but laugh at her spirit and lifts her up into his arms. He throws her into the air and she’s only out of his arms for about two seconds before she falls back into his grasp. She laughs loudly at the fun, and he laughs back.

She wraps her arms around his neck and hugs him as tight as she can.

“Okay, daddy.” she says, but it’s muffled. Her face is pressed so hard against his shoulder because she’s hugging him so tight.

And Geoff realizes in that moment that he likes having a daughter already.

*

**Three years later**

“Michael?” Gavin questions one night, while they’re trying to fall asleep.

Over the course of the past three years they’ve had little sleepovers like this a lot. Where it’s just the three of them. Michael, Gavin, and Ray. They’ll lay out blankets and pillows on the floor and play video games until they fall asleep.

“Yeah, Gavin?” he whispers back.

Their sleeping next to each other in their own separate sleeping bags. Since Ray’s the youngest they let him sleep on the couch instead of the floor.

Even though they’re nine years old now, they’re both still the exact same as they were three years ago. Gavin still says silly things to annoy him, and Michael still yells at him and calls him stupid for it.

“We’re best friends, right?”

Their voices are hushed as not to awake their sleeping brother.

The controller is still in Ray’s hand, but he’s fast asleep. The words “Game Over” are playing on the television, and the glow from the screen is the only source of light. Even though the room is dark, and there’s barely enough light, he can still make out the freckles that are scattered along Michael’s nose.

“Of course! Why would you even ask?”

“I don’t know.” he murmurs, feeling kind of silly now, “I feel like we haven’t got to hang out very much where it’s just me and you.”

“I know. I miss being able to yell at you without anybody interrupting it.” Michael smiles, and Gavin giggles.

“We’re going to be best friends forever though. Aren’t we, Michael?” Gavin’s mouth forms into that huge toothy grin.

“Yeah! And you wanna know why?” and as soon as Michael says it, he knows what’s coming next. “’Cause you my boy, Gavin!”

“You my boy, Michael!” Gavin cries out, obviously letting his excitement at their catchphrase overtake his respect to the silence. His words slightly echo throughout the house and they share a look of brief panic.

“Go to sleep, you two!” they hear Geoff yell out from his bedroom.

They hold their hands over their mouths to stifle their mischievous giggles.

“Be quieter, you dummy.”

“Sorry!” he squeals when Michael reaches over to tickle him. He loves putting Gavin in situations where it’s impossible for him to follow the rules. Whether it be because he’s torturing him or Gavin’s short attention span.

“Let’s go to sleep.” Michael says, and takes Gavin’s hand in his without even realizing it.

Gavin doesn’t complain and simply snuggles deeper into his pillow, finally admitting to himself that he’s tired enough to fall asleep. Holding Michael’s hand is comforting, and makes him feel safer. Even though Michael is ‘Mogar’ the villain in their games, he knows his Mogar will protect him from any monsters that could attack in the night.

“Night, Michael.” Gavin hums as his eyes close.

“My name’s  _Michael_.” he smiles, just for old times sake. It causes Gavin to giggle a little before drifting off to sleep immediately after wards.

Even though that was years ago, he still remembers the day they met so clearly.

He remembers that he used to hate Gavin, and he still kind of does. But there’s also a part of him that will always be his best friend. He’d punch a thousand Scott Miller’s if it meant keeping Gavin safe.

*

**7 years later**

Griffon sneaked up behind the couch where Geoff was watching Game of Thrones on TV, and covered his eyes with her hands.

“Guess who?” she asks, cheekily.

He doesn’t respond with anything other than laughter, and grabs her arms. Flipping her over the couch entirely so that she lands almost in his lap. She squeals loudly at both the fright and humor of being moved from one location to the other so abruptly.

“What are you doing?” he laughs, “I thought you were out back carving.”

“Yeah, and I thought  _you_  were watching over the kids.” she pokes him in the chest with one finger in mock accusation.

He scoffs, “They’re definitely old enough now to take care of themselves.”

 

“Gavin! You fucking idiot!” Michael screams from another room in the house. 

“Michael! No, Michael! Stop!” the sounds of Gavin’s squeals can also be heard as Michael obviously resorts to violence to punish the boy for being annoying.

Geoff winces at the timing of that scene. They couldn’t have yelled earlier when Griffon wasn’t in the house? “Michael, stop cursing!” he screams and then rolls his eyes when Michael yells back.

“But Gavin’s being a moron!”

“No, I’m not!” Gavin yells.

“Stop fighting!” Geoff screams again.

“Everybody stop yelling!” Ray bursts into their shouting match with a contradictory statement.

“I want to yell too!” Lindsay yells, from her own room, which is on the other side of the house. Even she can hear all the commotion.

“What are we having for supper?” Ryan screeches, probably just so that he can join in on the fun. He’s also in the bedroom with the three boys. Watching them play video games and fighting can be more amusing than one would think. Just because he’s a college student doesn’t mean that he can’t still do amusing fun things like this with his family. He’ll never be too old to deal with their crazy shenanigans.

He see’s Griffon open her mouth and inhale, preparing herself to yell a response. “Not you too!” Geoff says to her, in a normal volume, “Don’t encourage them!” Although he does have a killer headache, he’s only half serious about wanting them to stop.

She smirks at him mischievously before opening her mouth super wide, “We’ll probably order a pizza!” she screeches.

“You’re terrible.” Geoff states, shoving her shoulder playfully. He knows what comes next.

“Pizza!” every child in the house screams at the top of their lungs in celebration at the exact same time. Pizza was the family favourite. Every person in the house bursts into tears laughing at the entire situation.

“Now everybody shut up!” he yells one last time, basically daring somebody to shout again. The house goes quiet, and the only thing he can hear is the sound of the television.

Griffon collapses into giggles once again after the frightened silence settles throughout the house. Geoff is the father figure to everybody, and they know that he’ll kick their ass if they disobey him or Griffon.

“Do you ever look at all of this and think that we have the coolest little family ever?” she smiles.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it little.”

Seven people living under two separate roofs is pretty hectic.

Geoff figures that someday they’ll buy a house together and  _somewhat_ officially merge their two families into one.

‘ _Somewhat’_  because Geoff doesn’t really think they’ll really be one big family unless he and Griffon get married. But judging by the small box he has hidden away in his bedside drawer, that might change soon.

It’s hard to find the right moment to propose to somebody that you know is your soul mate. Griffon is the love of his life, and he can’t imagine spending his life with anybody else but her. Besides, they definitely aren’t breaking up anytime soon. Next step is marriage, right?

“Five babies!” she reminds him, grinning wildly. Even though they’re all grown up now and all teenagers, they’ll never stop referring to them as children or babies.

“Remind me again why we thought that adopting so many kids was a good idea?” he questions.

“Because it’s so much fun!”

“Fuck…five kids.” he mutters, but smiles at the same time, “We really are in over our heads.”

The kids are still the major handfuls they were when they were young children. But it’s gotten easier to manage such a large number of children over the course of the years, especially with the help of Ryan.

“I love it.” she reaches up to kiss his nose cutely, “and I love you.”

*

Geoff progressively got more and more nervous about proposing.

What if she said no? What if she didn’t want to get married?

I mean, they’ve been dating now for almost ten years. What if she was comfortable like this and didn’t want to change that.

“Goddammit.” Geoff curses to him, holding his head in his hands. This was a lot harder than he thought.

“What’s wrong, Geoff?” he hears his teenage son question as he walks into the room.

“Oh, hey, Michael. Nothing, don’t worry about it.” he attempts to brush off the kid’s worry, but to no avail.

“You feeling okay?”

“Yeah.”

“…Something on your mind?” he persists.

Geoff gives him a warning glare, “Michael.”

It wasn’t very often that Michael was soft hearted like this, but when it came to Geoff, he worried a lot. He loved his father to no end and would do anything for him.

Moments like these remind him of when he was in a bad mood and Geoff would be there with him, comforting him and telling him that he could talk to him if he wanted. And Michael would feel so pitiful as he told his adoptive father why he was so upset or angry, but Geoff would never judge him for it. He’d just listen, and be there for him. Who knows where Michael would be if he didn’t have those talks with Geoff.

So he doesn’t want his father to deal with any problems he has by himself. He’s always told Michael that talking about things can help sometimes, so he’s going to throw his own advice back at him.

He holds up his hands in mock surrender, “Sorry. But just know that I’m here if you want to talk, okay?”

Geoff rolls his eyes when he makes the connection. Michael trying to take care of him, telling him the same things Geoff’s always told him. The kid was pretty deep for a sixteen year old.

“Okay, fine.” he picks up his beer from the coffee table and takes a large gulp of it. It’s way past midnight, and Michael has school in the morning, but it doesn’t matter. Geoff decides that maybe telling somebody about this is a good thing. “I’m thinking about asking Griffon to marry me.”

Michael’s eye widen, “Whoa.” he states.

Geoff doesn’t saying anything, just watching his reaction.

Michael lets out a huge breath of air as he processes the information.

He can’t say that he’s particularly shocked by it. Geoff and Griffon have been dating for how many years now? Eight? Nine? They’ve been taking care of all of their children  _together_  for almost as long as he can remember. It’s not exactly shocking that they’d want to take the next step and just get married.

But what does this mean for him? What about the family. This will be the final link that merges their two families together entirely. Will he have to start calling Lindsay his sister, and Gavin his brother? That last one doesn’t sound pleasing to him at all.

Michael was the only boy in the house that didn’t call Lindsay his sister. It wasn’t because he didn’t like her, he loved her just as much as everybody else did. But he just didn’t think of her as his sister, and everybody was okay with that. He loved the fact that he could choose want he wanted to call his family members. It made things a lot more comfortable.

If Geoff and Griffon get married, then that comfort might end.

“Married…” he tests the word on his tongue.

“Yeah.” Geoff notices the boys hesitance and it worries him, “Are you okay with that?”

That causes Michael to look at him in confusion, “Me?”

He sits down on the living room couch next to Geoff, mainly because he’s still slightly taken off his feet.

He didn’t think his opinion really mattered in this. If Geoff wanted to get married then he’d get married whether Michael wanted him to or not, right?

“Of course, Michael. I wouldn’t get married if you were unhappy about it.” he informs his son, “This isn’t just about me and Griffon. It’s about you and the rest of the kids too.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” he states simply, “So, are you okay with it?”

“…Yeah. I want you and Griffon to be happy. And if getting married makes you happy then go for it.” Michael says.

Geoff knows by the way that his son’s not really looking him in the eye that he’s just saying that. Not because he doesn’t want them to get married, but because there’s something else on his mind.

He sighs while rolling his eyes, and then puts a comforting arm around Michael’s shoulder to pull the boy closer to him. “Okay, what is it? What’s bothering you about this?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, Michael.”

If he tells Geoff then he might never propose to Griffon, and he doesn’t want that to happen. He’s okay with the marriage part, he just doesn’t want the family dynamic to change.

But Geoff is persistent, and Michael knows that he’d end up telling him one way or another, so he just decides to come out with it now.

“If you and Griffon get married then do I have to start calling Lindsay my sister, and Gavin my brother?” he asks quietly.

“What? Of course not!” Didn’t they have this discussion back before they adopted Ray? “You don’t have to call anybody anything that you don’t want to.”

“But if you and Griffon get married then that’s  _it_ , right? Gavin and Lindsay will legally be my siblings.”

“If you don’t want them to be your siblings then you don’t have to view them in that way. The rest of the family doesn’t consider Gavin to be your brother or Lindsay to be your sister, because we respect each others decisions like that without even having to question it.”

“Oh.” is all Michael’s able to say.

“The only thing that will change is that we’ll probably all move into one house together.”

“So, Gavin won’t be my step brother or anything?”

“No. Only if you want him to be.”

“I  _don’t_  want him to be.”

“I know.” Geoff smiles, and squeezes Michael’s shoulder to him a little more to hug him, “I love ya’, kiddo.”

Michael gets excited then, “So when are you going to ask her? Do you have the ring yet?”

“I have the ring, but I have no bloody idea how I’m going to do this.” he says, and then rolls his eyes at his own use of British slang words.

He thought that he was the only one that wasn’t infected with Gavin’s strange lingo, but obviously he was incorrect. Every once in a while a word like that will just slip out without his realizing it.

Michael smirks at the word, but doesn’t say anything about it. Even he has embraced the fact that Gavin’s weird language is just a part of everybody’s everyday vocabulary now.

“You have to hurry up, Geoff! Ask her as soon as possible!” Michael grins.

“Calm down, Michael! You’ll wake up Ray.”

“Fuck him, I don’t care!”

“Michael.” Geoff states.

He rolls his eyes and says “sorry” in such a monotone voice that Geoff’s sure he’s not sorry at all. Michael’s habit of cursing is something that will never change.

Geoff just laughs, letting this one slide for now, “Get to bed, you moron. You have school tomorrow.”

*

“What history homework did we have?” Michael questions, opening up his textbook on his bed.

Gavin gives a nonchalant mumble in response that sounds like, “I don’t know.”

Michael groans at his uncaring nature, “Are you going to do  _any_ homework tonight?”

“Maybe. Depends on how much you let me copy off of you.”

“You’re such a lazy bastard.”

They’re both sitting in Michael’s room by themselves. The rest of the family went out for dinner, but they opted to stay home and do homework. Gavin only agreed because he thought Michael was lying about the homework part, and figured they were just going to play video games or something.

“You love it.” he smirks, “But seriously though, let’s just play some games.”

Michael rolls his eyes, but considers it. He doesn’t actually know what questions they were assigned, and texting another student to ask would just be a lot more effort than he’s willing to put into this.

Both of them do well enough in school that missing out on some homework won’t really affect their grades. They’re both pretty lazy when it comes to work, but Gavin’s obviously the bigger slacker out of the two of them.

“Fine, whatever. What are we playing? Halo?”

“Yeah, sure.”

He only suggested it because he knew that it was Gavin’s favorite game. They played it a lot with Ray and it was fun. But since their brother was so good at video games, it was sometimes more fun to play it without him. It gave both of them a chance to play the game without dying every five seconds. At least Michael did anyway.

“Bullocks!” Gavin yelled after getting killed by him again.

They’d only been playing for two minutes.

Michael just laughs loudly, and Gavin can’t help but smile at the feeling of his shoulder rubbing against his own. They don’t know the reason themselves, but whenever they’re alone, they like to sit close together. When they were young it was because Gavin was scared and Michael liked comforting him.

They used to do lots of things like that when they were little kids.

They would hold hands as they walked around or played, and Michael loved the feeling of Gavin’s little fingers entwined into his own. But now that they’re older, people wouldn’t think that they’re just cute little boys that are friends. It didn’t take long for them to put a stop to that sort of behavior, but that doesn’t mean that they both don’t secretly miss it.

So without ever conversing about it, they both just decided to keep doing those things whenever they’re spending time together privately. They never talked about it or confirmed it, but both knew that they enjoyed it. Michael refused to think about it though, because he knew that he liked it a little  _too_ much.

Besides, it couldn’t be that harmful, could it? It was just sitting close to one another, holding hands, the feel of Gavin’s head resting on his shoulder, or Gavin’s head in his lap.

In all honestly, Michael had been internally battling with the strange feelings he’d start getting whenever he was around Gavin. The little moment where he’d feel his heart skip a beat when Gavin laughed. The somersault his stomach would do when he made a dumb joke or asked a stupid question.

He knew it wasn’t wrong, because they weren’t brothers. They weren’t even related. They were just friends. Best friends. And that’s all they were ever going to be.

“Guess what, Gav.” he smirks, then begins talking in a sing-songy voice, “I know something that you don’t know.”

As he was hoping, Gavin was excitedly intrigued, “What is it!?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“You minge, you can’t just do that to somebody! You  _have_ to tell me now!” he whines, throwing the controller recklessly behind his back. He turns to face Michael and even though they’re faces are really close to one another, neither of them back away. Because this is normal behavior for the two of them.

“Okay, fine. But you have to promise not to tell anybody.” he states, attempting to be as serious as possible.

“I pinky swear, Michael.” Gavin holds up his pinky, introducing a concept that neither of them used after they reached the age of eight.

“You’re such a dumbass.” Michael rolls his eyes, but wraps his finger around the younger boys pinky anyways.

Gavin finally moves away from his face once he gets up to sit on his knees so that he can focus every bit of his attention on what Michael’s about to tell him. He’s way too easily excitable.

“Geoff is going to ask Griffon to marry him.” he whispers, even though they’re the only two in the house, and there’s no chance of anybody overhearing. Michael knows that he only said it quietly because he knew that the other boy would have to lean in close to hear him, but he’s past the point of caring.

“What!” Gavin explodes, a huge grin forming on his face at the idea. “Oh my gosh! This is huge! This is amazing!”

Michael just watches him look around desperately, as though his happiness is just overflowing and he doesn’t know what to do with it all. His arms are fidgeting around wildly and uncontrollably.

“Gavin, calm down!” Michael yells over his excited blather, but he’s also smiling just as wide.

“Oh my gosh, Michael! This is great! We’ll probably all move into a big house together! And Geoff will  _actually_ be my dad! And Ray will  _actually_  be my brother! And you-” Gavin’s chatter is immediately cut off by himself when he goes impossibly quiet.

Michael doesn’t say anything, trying to piece together exactly what Gavin is thinking in that messed up brain of his.

He’s never asked Gavin’s opinion on it. But he’s never directly called him his brother either, so both boys knew that they just simply weren’t brothers. They were best friends, and that was that. It wasn’t something they needed to talk about or confirm.

He decides to help him out, since he’s obviously conflicted. “We’ll still be best friends.” he states slowly, putting a comforting hand on Gavin’s shoulder.

“Yeah.” Gavin nods, clearly processing the fact that he is indeed okay with that. “No, wait!” he yells loudly, and looks Michael straight in the eyes.

Gavin’s serious expression scares him for a moment. Does he not want to be friends? Does he actually want them to be brothers now? Does he want to be… _more_  than friends?

And that thought makes Michael pause. Why does that make him feel so hopeful? What would he do if Gavin seriously just asked him straight out ‘We could be boyfriends.’ The fact that he has no idea scares him, and he knows that the answer  _should_ be no, but even just thinking about this scenario scares him.

“…What, Gavin?” he questions, trying to appear as calm as possible, yet he knows his expressive eyes are showing how nervous he is.

Gavin doesn’t seem to notice it though, and just giggles, “We’ll be  _super_ best friends!”

As he feels the relief wash through his mind, he lets out a chuckle and then shoves Gavin away playfully. “You’re such a dumbass.”

“You said that already.”

“Yeah, that’s because it’s true, dumbass.”

Michael decides to push the entire subject to the back of his mind, forcing himself not to dwell on it.

*

“Of course! Yes!” Griffon squeals at the top of her lungs. Before Geoff can even get up from the ground, where he’s down on one knee, she tackles him with an impossibly huge grin on her face.

As soon as the words leave her mouth, all of the teenagers in the room begin cheering as loud as they can.

“Yay!” Lindsay screams, hopping up and down.

“Fuck yeah!” Michael yells, not caring to censor his language around Geoff right now.

They’re a constant cheering noise in the background due to the children’s happiness, but once Griffon tackled Geoff to the floor most begin laughing and yelling “Oooo!” teasingly.

“Somebody’s getting laid tonight!” Ray yells, which only succeeds in making everybody laugh or cheer harder.

They don’t even bother scolding him for being crude or saying such things about his own parents, because everybody’s just so damn happy.

Griffon finally looks up at them after kissing Geoff’s face all over, “We’re getting married!” she screams, that grin still planted on her face. Geoff closes his eyes and laughs loudly at her excitement.

Then once the two get up off of the floor, everybody begins hugging one another.

He doesn’t expect Ray to hug him as hard as he did, usually his youngest brother is so nonchalant to things like this, but even he is undeniably overjoyed.

“Hug me, brotha!” he yells, referencing the old television show that they used to watch together called ‘Drake and Josh’.

As soon as they let each other go Ryan hugs him next, and he still can’t stop smiling.

Why did he ever think that Geoff and Griffon getting married would change anything? The only thing it’s accomplished so far is bringing them closer to one another.

“I love you, honey.” Griffon says, as she hugs him close to her, and before she releases him she gives him a quick peck on the top of the head.

“Love ya’ too, Grif.” he smirks.

The next to hug him is Gavin, and he’s not so gentle with his hug like everybody else was. Gavin launches himself into his best friends arms once he finishes hugging Geoff, and then wraps his legs around his waist like a clingy monkey.

“They’re getting married, Michael!” he exclaims.

“I know, you idiot.”

“You were right! You weren’t lying!” he whispers happily into Michael’s ear once he goes back to hugging him tightly.

“Of course I wasn’t!” he argues. He attempts to pretend that he’s angry or frustrated, but it doesn’t work because he’s still grinning himself.

Gavin just giggles and finally unwraps his legs from Michael’s body. No use getting annoyed with him for doing it in the first place, since Gavin’s obviously way past the point of even controlling his own actions right now.

He just looks into Gavin’s eyes, watching the overflow of emotions that are bursting through them as the boy can hardly keep still.

“Mum!” he yells, and runs into Griffon’s arm. Sometimes he appears to forget that he’s a fifteen year old boy now, and he’s not so light anymore. He’s still just as bouncy as he was when he was five years old, and also just as annoying.

Michael laughs, but he curses himself for even noticing the loss of contact when Gavin leaves his arms.

It’s been progressively harder to ignore the strange feelings he’s been getting around Gavin, and he hates it.

“Michael!” Lindsay hugs him. Even though he enjoys it, it’s not the same as Gavin’s hug. She’s not as clingy and desperate to be as close as possible to him, and he finds himself wishing that she was Gavin.

He does love Lindsay though. She’s probably the closest friend he has that’s a girl. He’s never been entirely sure why they never refer to themselves as siblings, but he’s just never thought of her as his little sister. He likes their relationship though. She knows him better than anybody and always gives him advice and an ear to talk to if Geoff’s not around, or if it’s about something he doesn’t want to discuss with Geoff.

She also knows that he thinks he might be gay.

He’s never specifically told her that he thinks he might like Gavin, but she’s known for a while. And she acts like the good friend she is and teases him for it every once in a while, but will treat the situation seriously when she notices that he’s actually serious about it.

“Can you believe it!” she squeals, bouncing up and down while hugging him tightly, so that he’s roughly being moved up and down.

“Lindsay, calm down!” he laughs, trying to settle her a little.

It appears to work since she stops hugging him, yet continues to bounce around.

Whenever she’s really excited she bounces around like Gavin does, except he does it all the time.

“I’m also happy because I saw you and Gavin hugging, and it was super cute.” she whispers quietly to him while beaming.

“Shut up.” he mutters, and looks down at his feet so that she won’t notice his cheeks warming up.

She grins even wider at his embarrassment. She’s only fifteenteen years old, but she obviously knows a lot more about Michael’s crush than he does, and it sort of pisses him off.

Michael grabs her face in an attempt to cease her bouncing and it works. “I think you should talk to him.” she states, smiling coyly.

“No, I’d rather not.”

“Please,” she begs, stretching out the word.

“Goddammit.” he mutters, “I’ll think about it.”

“Yay!” she squeals again, bouncing once again with Michael’s hands still trying to keep her still.

It’s a good thing they’re friends, because he doesn’t know if he’d ever face his own feelings if it wasn’t for her.

When Geoff looks over and sees Michael’s amused smile as he watches Lindsay freak out excitedly about both his feelings for Gavin, and the engagement, while her face is still being held in place by his hands.

And he smiles because he thinks that maybe there’s something going on.

*

He waits a few weeks until he brings it up to Griffon. It’s when they’ve decided to have a date night, and treat themselves to going to a fancy restaurant. They don’t do things like this very often, and usually prefer to go to a movie or something.

“Guess what, buttercup?” he rhymes off after they hand their menu’s back to the waiter.

Griffon smiles, “What is it, my lovely fiance?”

They’ve started using annoying terms of endearment like that, mainly just because it annoys the kids. Then soon they couldn’t stop saying it, even when the kids weren’t around. It’s like when you start saying something ironically but you can’t stop saying it even in unironic situations. The same thing happened with Ray with the word yolo.

“I think somebody in this family’s got a little crush.”

“Really? Is it Ray with that girl Courtney next door?”

“No, but I haven’t looked into that yet, so it’s possible.”

They enjoy delving into their children’s little love lives like this. It’s fun being the annoying prying parents that secretly know everything about their children.

The fact that all of their children are teenagers now makes it so much more fun.

“Who then?”

“I think Michael likes Lindsay.”

She gasps and then nods wildly, “You think that too?! I’ve been thinking that for a while now!”

“I think it’s really cute, but do you think that we should be against this?” he asks, knowing that they have to be serious about this for a moment.

“Nah.” she waves her hand, “They aren’t related and they don’t even consider themselves to be siblings. I think it’s adorable.”

“Okay, good. ‘Cause I’m totally fine with it, and I was hoping that you’d say that.” he nods.

“So, should we do something about it?” she asks.

“You mean help them get together?”

“Yeah, should we talk to one of them?”

“I’ll talk to Michael about it, and see what I can do.” he says, while nodding.

“Perfect.”

They high-five and continue on with their fancy dinner like the mature adults that they are.

*

“Hey, Geoff. What’s up? You and Griffon have a nice date?” Michael questions.

“Yeah,” he sits down on the bed next to his son, “What are you doing up so late?”

“It’s only two in the morning. Besides, it’s Friday. No biggie.” he shrugs.

“Where’s Ray?”

“Probably sleeping. He and I planned to stay up all night, so I gave him a bunch of energy drinks. He sort of collapsed after he had a few.”

“You’re a great brother.” Geoff mutters sarcastically.

“Yup.” Michael smirks, then turns to look at him, “So what’s up?”

“…You’re sixteen now, aren’t you, Michael? About to turn seventeen?” he asks rhetorically. Of course Geoff knows how old he is, but he’s been going over how to start this particular conversation in his head during the car ride home from Griffon’s house.

“…Yeah…?” Michael gives him a hesitant look in return, suspicious as to where this conversation is heading.

Geoff’s reminded of his own father trying to give him this talk, and he always told himself that he would never do that to his own son if he had one. Fuck.

“Well, I think it’s time you and I had a little… _talk_.” the look on his face as he says it can only be described as painful. He didn’t realize how mind numbingly uncomfortable this would be.

But luckily Michael understands exactly what’s going on and jumps to his feet immediately, “Whoa! Whoa, Geoff! No! You  _seriously_ do not have to do this.” he has his two hands in front of him in a ‘stop’ motion.

“Thank God!” he mutters, and buries his face into his hands.

“What the hell, Geoff! Why would you even want to have the sex talk with me _now_?” Michael’s past the point of awkward shock, and onto confusion. He and Geoff have a good father/son relationship where they’re able to talk about pretty much anything. It usually wasn’t ever uncomfortable or awkward like it just was, so there must be something else going on here.

“Griffon and I were talking during dinner… about you.”

“About my  _dick_? What the  _fuck_?” Michael asks, and although he’s not yelling, it’s said in a confused, exasperated tone.

“ _No_!” Geoff yells. He doesn’t care that Michael just cursed, he’s too annoyed that this talk has taken such a huge turn.

Michael doesn’t say anything else, and just looks at him with an eyebrow raised and his arms crossed, patiently waiting for him to continue.

Geoff tries to calm himself down after that ordeal. He doesn’t want to blurt this out and make Michael angry.

“Because we think you might be experiencing your first real crush.” he hints at slowly.

Michael feels his eyes widen, his expression slacks, and his arms fall to his sides. He looks at Geoff nervously, then attempts to laugh it off, “What? Me? Of course not. You’re insane, Geoffrey.”

“Oh come on, I know you better than that. I saw you after the proposal last week.”

“Damn it.” Michael curses, looking down at the ground in annoyance. Are his feelings for Gavin becoming that obvious?

Geoff smiles, knowing that he has the kid caught, and now all he has to do is reel him in. “You can talk to me about it, if you want.” he hints.

Michael just glares him at, “Actually…I’d rather just forget about it altogether.”

That thought makes Geoff’s eyes widen. If Griffon finds out that he let Michael destroy any feelings that he has for Lindsay then she would probably blame him. “No! No no no no!” he chants desperately, “Don’t do that!”

Michael’s caught off guard by his reaction, “Why does it matter?”

“Because you’re still young! You should go for moments like these and experience what it’s like to be in love and shit.” he grasping at straws trying to come up with bullshit excuses for Michael not to let this go.

“Why aren’t you yelling at me and telling me that it’s disgusting or something. You do realize that this is one of  _Griffon’s_  kids, right?” he questions, “Griffon?…The woman that you’re  _engaged_  too?”

“Yes, and we talked about it at dinner. We think it’s totally awesome.”

Then Michael isn’t confused anymore, and his face relaxes with disbelieving realization. “You two love this…don’t you? You want this to happen!”

“…Maybe.” Geoff says innocently.

He’s used to his ‘parents’ acting weird like this. Everybody in the family knows what they’re like when they find out about crushes and stuff, and that’s the main reason why Ray’s keeping his little relationship with Courtney a secret.

They don’t go to the same school, so the only time they ever really get to talk is if they peek through the fence that separates their yards. They do text each other all the time, and do video calls on Skype, but any other means of seeing each other would arouse suspicion. Not being able to see his girlfriend is probably better than listening to his parents teasing and saying “Awww” all the time.

And if you think otherwise, then you obviously have not witnessed this first hand like Michael is right now. At least Geoff is being tame about it. If Griffon was here too, then it would be a lot more unbearable.

“Oh my gosh.” Michael rolls his eyes, “You guys are the worst!”

“We’re just trying to give you a push in the right direction.”

“What does that even mean?” Michael yells. He doesn’t care anymore that he might wake up Ray, he’s too busy being frustrated with Geoff and his fiancee’s prying.

“We think you should go for it!”

“But I don’t want to! I don’t want everything to change!” Michael yells, angrily.

Geoff realizes that he has to back up this conversation a little bit. If he makes Michael too mad then he’s going to refuse to talk about it anymore, and that would mean that he’s made everything worse.

“Come here.” he says, and holds out an arm.

Michael lets out an annoyed sigh, but obeys anyways. He sits down next to Geoff on his bed and lets the older man put a comforting arm around his shoulders.

“When did this all start?” he asks, trying to keep the smile off of his face. It’s time right now to be the supportive parent that gives his son love life advice, not tease him for it.

“I don’t know. Probably a few years ago.” Michael shrugs, he has a defeated tone to his voice.

He was sort of expecting him to be angry, but he doesn’t seem to be. Gavin is both a boy and a  _sort of kind of_ son of his fiancee’s. Both things could easily be frowned upon. And although he seems to be okay with it, and is acting  _very_ supportive, Michael’s still not sure how he should react to this.

Geoff could change emotions very easily, probably because he only has two. So, it was like flipping a switch. He’s either extremely happy and making fun of everybody, or extremely annoyed, and yelling at everybody.

Sometimes Michael can’t differentiate between the two.

“You’ve been bottling this up for that long?”

“I guess.”

Geoff smiles and rubs the poor boys back encouragingly. “It’s cute. You’re cute.”

“Shut up.”

That only succeeds in making him smile wider. While growing up he remembers talking to his own father about this stuff, and having to endure his dad making fun of him. The best part about being a father was getting to be on the other end to these things.

“You can talk about it if you want.”

Michael’s about to refuse, and tell Geoff to leave him alone for good, but just hearing him say those words already gives him a feeling of relief. Yeah, sometimes he does talk to Lindsay about all of these girly, mushy, dumb feelings he has, but it’ll probably feel better to tell another guy. Another guy that’s obviously desperately in love with his fiancee. He might have some good advice, or at least some encouraging words.

“I don’t really know where to begin. I guess it all started when Gavin and I first met.” he murmurs.

“This really dates back  _that_  long?” he’s impressed by that. Lindsay wasn’t even there during that. But maybe it was Gavin’s friendship that allowed him to open up, and got him to be friends with Lindsay.

Geoff knows that he’s not about to interrupt the story to question it though, since he both wants the boy to let out his feelings, and have gossip to report back to Griffon.

But Michael’s obviously very good at hiding his feelings if it’s went on this long.

“I guess.” he mumbles. He still doesn’t really want to talk about it. Even  _he_ doesn’t really understand it, so why would Geoff understand?

Michael’s has finally realized that he actually  _does_ like Gavin. He definitely likes him a lot more than he should. But he would never in a million years admit it to anybody other than Geoff and Lindsay. You wouldn’t be able to  _pay_ him enough to tell Gavin about it.

Geoff smiles softly, “Go on.”

Michael rolls his eyes, and tries to relay into censored words his feelings. But curses slip through the cracks regardless.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just an idiot. When we first met as kids I hated him, and I wanted nothing to do with him. But then he just refused to let my insults or anger get him down, and… I liked that, I guess. But as years went on, we became closer and closer friends, and I  _continued_  to like it. Lindsay always asks me what it is that I like about him so much, but I just  _don’t know_. That dumb ass accent of his, his crazy hair, that loud laugh, the way he pronounces my name…I just don’t fucking know, Geoff. And it’s driving me insane.

“I’ve tried to forget about it for as long as I could, but it gets hard, ya’know? Especially when we’re always together and he’s so clingy. I’m so scared that he’ll finally notice and then hate me forever, but it’s getting so obvious, isn’t it? I mean, even you and Griffon could tell.”

Michael sighs once he finishes. But he has to admit that saying all of that out loud to Geoff has lifted a huge weight off of his chest.

He turns to look up at Geoff, but is immediately confused by the man’s wide eyes and shocked expression.

“Geoff? You okay?” he asks.

That seems to almost snap the older man out of his appalled state. “W-What? Oh yes, of course, Michael. I just…uh… I… I gotta go!”

He jumps up from his seat on Michael’s bed so quickly, and then runs out the door.

Michael’s left there with a confused expression on his face as he looks at the door that Geoff just barreled through.

“What the fuck?” he murmurs to himself.

*

A loud knocking on her door wakes her up at three in the morning. Geoff had only just went home a few hours ago, so she was finally getting to the good parts of her dreams. She curses whoever could be at the door right now.

They’re probably going to wake up the kids if they continue, so she knows she can’t just lay here all day cursing their name.

She glances at her bedside clock and sees how late it is, then grabs the wooden baseball bat behind the table it’s on.  _Better safe than sorry_ , she figures. And shoves on her housecoat that’s hanging on the back of her bedroom door. She doesn’t care if it’s the president of the United States knocking on her door, she’s not going to run to the front door naked just because of some impatient, loud, and scary knocks.

As she makes her way to the front door slowly, ready to swing the bat at a moment notice. Then does the cliché thing that everybody in horror movies does, and calls out “Hello?”

“Grif! It’s me!” she hears the familiar voice of her fiance call out from the other side.

She lets out a loud sigh of relief and lowers the bat. “Geoff!” she scolds, while unlocking the door, “You scared the shit out of me! Where’s your key?”

“Sorry, and I forgot it. I was in such a rush to get here.” he pants, obviously still out of breath.

“Did you run here?”

“Sort of. But that’s not important.” he states.

“Well be quiet, the kids are sleeping! Do you have any idea what time it is?”

He decides to just cut straight to the point. “Griffon.” he forgets all about how tired he is and puts a steady hand on her shoulder, “We were wrong.”

“Wrong about  _what_?”

“Michael’s not in love with Lindsay.”

Her face drops. “What? Are you sure?”

“I’m  _really_ sure.”

All of her annoyance is replaced with disbelief and briefly disappointment. But Geoff continues talking before she can question it.

“Because he’s in love with Gavin.”


	2. Chapter 2

There’s a brief moment of unsure silence as Griffon processes the information.

"What!?" she yells, a disbelieving and confused expression dancing across her no-longer-tired features.

Geoff immediately puts a hand over her mouth so that she won’t be so loud. “Be quiet! The only one’s that know about this is me, you, and maybe Lindsay.”

"Lindsay knows?" her voice is muffled by his hand, and she’s still too shocked to move it away.

"That’s what he told me. I didn’t stick around to ask him because I panicked and needed to come tell you right away."

"Oh my gosh…" she moves his hand so that he can hear her clearly, "I actually didn’t see this coming."

"You and me both." he mutters under his breath.

The surprise still hasn’t worn off for him either. He was totally blind sided by the news and is still trying to get the shock to wear off. Maybe he just imagined the whole thing. Maybe he’s just an idiot and  _thought_ that Michael was talking about Gavin.

But then he remembers all the little moments that he’d always shrug off before. Times when Gavin would jump on Michael’s back and cry out for a piggy back ride, and he’d actually comply after calling him a dumbass. Or like all the times that he’d affectionately yell out “You my boy!” to him. The little looks that they’d sneak at one another and snicker together like they had some kind of private joke. Or the few times he’d come into Michael’s room to make sure the boys went to sleep, and would find their hands entwined.

Looking back on it now, he  _should_ have been suspicious. But he wasn’t, and didn’t think that those things actually meant something. They were just playing around and joking. He feels like such an idiot now.

If Michael had a crush on Lindsay, getting them together would have been no problem. The only hardship would have been Michael’s stubborn attitude. But now they have to deal with that,  _plus_ Gavin’s incompetence.

"Well, now what?" she questions, looking back up at him, "We’re back at square one."

"Exactly, and I don’t think Michael’s going to admit his feelings for Gavin easily. If thought we’d have a tough time with Lindsay…we’re in  _way_ over our heads now.”

"We’ll think of something. I mean, come on." she perks up. Griffon always was optimistic about these sorts of things, "They’ve been friends for like ten years now and we raised them. We know them better than anybody."

"That’s true. Maybe I’ll just talk to Michael a little more, and then we’ll stay out of it from there." he suggests, as he thinks over his own idea.

Michael’s a really stubborn kid. He always has been. Getting him to talk to anybody about his little crush is going to be impossible.

Griffon sighs, but then nods her head, “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. We don’t want to interfere too much. This is Michael and Gavin we’re talking about. If we try to force this then Michael’s just going to hate us and then nothing will ever come out of it.”

They’re quiet for another few moments, allowing themselves to agree with what was said, and not showing any emotions on their face. But then they both explode in excited whispers at the same time while hopping like cute twelve year old school girls.

"I just can’t believe it’s Gavin!"

"He’s in love with  _Gavin_!”

"What the hell!"

"Biggest plot twist ever!"

*

Geoff ended up sleeping over to Griffon’s house that night since he couldn’t be bothered to walk all the way back home.

So when he woke up in the morning, and felt her nestled up next to him, his arms around her, he couldn’t help but smile. After a few weeks, this is what he’d wake up to everyday.

They’d already talked about getting a house together and had been looking around for one that would be suitable for their large family. So far, they’ve been unsuccessful.

He helps Griffon make breakfast and they talk happily about nothing in particular. That’s the best thing about her, is that she’s able to turn anything into an hour long conversation.

Gavin walks into the kitchen, wearing only a T-shirt, a pair of boxers, and odd socks on his feet. His hair is even messier than usual and he’s rubbing his eyes to take away the sleepiness.

Geoff and Griffon immediately stop talking when they notice, and just stare at him. Everything that happened last night concerning Michael and his crush on the boy goes rushing through their heads again, and they’re so desperate to act casual that they end up just standing there frozen in uncertainty.

"Wot’?" Gavin mumbles and raises an eyebrow, his accent much more thick since he’s still half asleep. "Why are you staring at me?"

"Oh, uh, no reason." Griffon states, and then thrusts a plate of bacon into his hands.

That seems to wake him up. His eyes stare greedily at the food. “Is all this for me?”

"Uh, sure." Geoff responds, shrugging his shoulders. It was originally for all of the family to share, but it’s done a good job from distracting the boy from his parents odd behavior.

"Where are Michael and Ray?" Gavin asks, as he shovels bacon into his mouth. "And why are you here so early?"

"They’re at the other house. I texted them to come over if they wanted breakfast. There was an….emergency… and I had to come over last night." Geoff say uneasily. He shrugs, attempting to act nonchalant, not realizing that the sentence could be taken in other ways. He was just trying to hold a conversation without accidentally blurting out something dumb about Michael and his crush.

Usually he and Griffon are pros at this, but finding out that they’d been chasing the wrong tail sort of threw them off their game.

Gavin exaggerates throwing up noises loudly, but then begins actually gagging because of it. His parents laugh at his misfortune as they set the rest of the table.

"Hey, Gavvy!" Lindsay cries out happily as she walks into the kitchen with Ryan. She always was a morning person.

"Hey, Linds’." he mumbles as he wipes the tears out of his eyes. He curses his horrible gag reflex, and his parents for being so open about stuff like that. (Even though he’s wrong in this particular situation.)

She bounces over and kisses him on the top of the head, then takes the seat next to his. He snickers at her general excitement, and then says good morning to Ryan when he takes the other seat next to him.

"There better still be food for me!" Ray yells as he walks lazily into the room. He’s fully dressed, but still looks as though he just woke up. He probably walked all the way over here just for breakfast.

"Where’s Michael?" Gavin asks him, and then scoots his chair over so that Ray can sit next to him. Their table isn’t exactly meant to fit six people at once.

"He opted to stay home and sleep. I’m not surprised considering he and pops were up all night chatting away." he mutters, throwing an annoyed glance at Geoff.

Geoff’s relieved that Michael stayed home. Just seeing Gavin this morning sort of freaked both and Griffon out for no reason. Next time he sees Michael, he knows he’s going to have to prepare himself so that he doesn’t react like that again.

"What were you guys talking about?" Ryan asks, curiously.

"Nothing!" Geoff states, a little too loud and quickly. Even Griffon looked up from her plate with wide eyes at her sons question.

"Okay…" Ryan stretches out the word as he looks at his father in confusion. He knew his parents could be weird sometimes, but that just appeared out of the blue. After rolling his eyes and shrugging it off, he figures it’s nothing worth worrying about.

Lindsay raises a suspicious eyebrow at her parents nervous behavior, but nobody else seems to notice besides her.

"Any luck with finding a house yet?" Gavin asks, not caring enough about Geoff and Michael’s conversation to pry.

"Sadly, no." Griffon sighs. She and Geoff both sit down at the last two chairs and begin picking food to put on their plates.

Judging by the way that Gavin’s guarding his plate, nobody else is getting bacon this morning.

"I think we should just get a farm. We can make the lads sleep in the hay bales." Ryan smirks.

'The Lads' is the name that the team of boys Michael, Ray, and Gavin were given. They were all such close friends that they usually went everywhere together (especially when they were younger), and due to that, Gavin soon began referring to them as the lads. The name just sort of stuck, even after all these years.

"I think you want a barn just so that you can fulfill your lifelong dream of having a pet cow." Lindsay points at him with her spoon knowingly.

"A cow named Edgar would be awesome." he argues.

Ryan may be a college student, but he was still as immature as the rest of them.

“ _Anyways_ , we’ve been having trouble due to the amount of bedrooms we would need.” Geoff interjects, not wanting another pet-cow argument to start again.

"An affordable house with six bedrooms isn’t as easy to find as one would think." Griffon states.

"That’s why we need to discuss the possibility of sharing rooms."

"I can live with it." Ryan says, and the boys nod in agreement.

"Lindsay, being the only girl, would be getting her own room." Geoff mentions.

"Lucky buggar." Gavin mutters at her playfully, and she sticks her tongue out at him. He smirks at her before talking to the table again, "Team Lads could share a room if there’s one big enough?" Gavin suggests.

Having little family conferences is something that happens quite often. When you have such a big family, there needs to be moments where everybody can sit down and talk if something serious arises between them. Buying a new house is pretty damn important.

"Hell no! I am not sharing a room with Gavin! Do you have any idea how much he snores?" Ray yells across the table, desperate to make sure his point his heard.

"I do not snore!"

"Yes you do! I’ve had to endure countless sleepovers with your constant snoring waking me up!"

"Oh, please! Michael and I slapped you across the face once and you didn’t even wake up!" Gavin continues to argue.

"Yeah! Because your snoring is worst than a smack to the face!"

"Okay! Okay! Stop fighting! Gavin and Ray won’t be in a room together." Griffon settles.

"Aw, no X-Ray and Vav." Gavin whines at Ray, who laughs at him.

"Well, I’m usually only here on the weekends, so I can bunk with somebody easily." Ryan suggests. He lived in a campus dorm room at his college, but always spent the weekends with his family. It was crazy how much he missed them and their dumb little fights like this when he was away.

"Ryan and I can share a room. R&R Connection." he holds his fist out for a fist-bump, and Ryan accepts it.

These dumb ‘team names’ have probably gotten a little out of hand, especially since Geoff once sarcastically called he and Michael’s team ‘Team Fuck You.’

But it just seemed like something that would never fade. They’d use them for such stupid things like when playing co-op video games together, or who rides in which car when they’re going on a family outting.

"Michael and I can share a room," Gavin shrugs while continuing to shove bacon strips into his mouth.

Geoff looks up from his plate of food, his eyes wide and immediately yells, “No!” at the top of his lungs toward Gavin.

Everybody stops eating and looks at Geoff. He did it so fast and without any warning, that everybody was struck with surprise.

"Calm down." Griffon hisses at him.

He overcomes his shock and then looks at Gavin. The boys eyes are wide with an emotion that could almost be pegged as fear. Why was Geoff yelling at him like a mad person?

"Uh…" Ryan says awkwardly, trying to grasp what just happened.

"Sorry." Geoff mumbles, putting his head down to his plate again to avoid his children’s stares. "Uh…You and Michael are  _not_ sharing a room.”

Gavin’s afraid to speak again, but he somehow musters up the courage to ask quietly, “…Why not?”

He’s used to his parents being weird, but usually there’s a reason. Is there something going on that he doesn’t know about?

"Because we said so, Gavin. Now eat your bacon." Griffon snaps, mainly just because she’s annoyed at their inability to keep their cool.

"Okay…Whatever you say, mum and dad…" he mumbles. Then gives Ray and look that asks ‘What’s up with them?’ and Ray returns it with a shrug that seems to say ‘I have no idea what’s going on right now.’

Griffon notices Lindsay looking at both her and Geoff. She looks deep in thought as she stares at them, then her eyes widen in sudden realization and her jaw drops.

"You  _know_!” she yells, the outburst causes everyone to look at her like they looked at Geoff moments before.

"Shut up, Lindsay." Geoff hisses at her under his breath.

It’s not very often that they glare or seriously get annoyed with their children, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Lindsay refuses to back down though, and leans over the table towards her parents. “How did you find out?!” she yells, forgetting completely about the fact that everybody else is still listening.

"Find out about what?" Gavin questions loudly, refusing to keep quiet. Something was going on, that much was obvious, and he was going to find out what it was.

"Yeah, what the hell is going on here?" Ray asks. He feels that he has the right to know since it was their mumblings that woke him up in the middle of the night.

"Did he tell you himself!?" Lindsay continues to ask, not even paying attention to the boys questions.

"Lindsay, stop it!" Geoff says to her, getting progressively more and more annoyed. He’s at least attempting to bottle it up.

Talking about Michael and Gavin without Gavin knowing, when they’re  _in front_ of Gavin, isn’t something that Geoff is prepared to do. Lindsay needs to remember that there are people around and that if they’re going to discuss this then it needs to be away from prying ears and eyes. If he needs to get mad at her in order to do it, then so be it.

Griffon stands up too and puts a hand on Geoff’s shoulder, “Let’s all just calm down.” she looks at her daughter, “Lindsay. We’ll talk about it  _later_.”

That seems to get the young girls attention because she looks down at her brothers, who are still sitting at the table, completely in the dark about what’s going on.

"Sorry. Okay, we’ll talk later." she confirms.

"No! Now we want to know! Tell us!" Gavin insists.

"Yeah, is somebody in trouble?" Ray questions.

"No! Nobody’s in trouble!"

"Then what is it!?"

"It’s none of your business!"

The entire table begins fighting and yelling at each other.

Geoff just sits back down and buries his head in his hands. Who knew that Michael having a crush could cause such a riot.

Sometimes this family is a huge strain on his mental health.

"Uh… Did I miss the fun?" Michael asks.

Everybody stops where they’re doing and looks up at Michael, who’s standing in the kitchen doorway, watching his family fight like wild animals.

Geoff looks up from his hands to look at his son, and when Michael raises an eyebrow at him, he just sighs and lets his head fall back into his hands.

This family is so complicated.

*

"You told Geoff!?" Lindsay asks him.

"…Yeah." Michael mumbles, not wanting to look her in the eyes.

She grips both of his shoulders so that he has no choice but to look at her, “What’s the one rule in this family when it comes to relationships and romance?”

"…No telling Geoff or Griffon."

"That’s right." she nods, "And I got in trouble at breakfast because of this."

She lets him go and sits down next to him. They’re in her room, and Michael’s always hated coming in here due to how girly it is. But that’s the main reason why she decorated it like this. She’s had to deal with Gavin coming in and annoying her all the time, so pink walls and flowery decorations usually kept him away (for the most part).

Michael lets out an annoyed sigh, “I’m just sick of keeping it all bottled up. It was nice to tell somebody else about it.”

Lindsay knew what he meant. Talking to Geoff or Griffon really did make you feel better, regardless of the subject. They were always there to lend an ear and give advice. If you wanted to confess about something bad you’ve done, they’d wait until you talked about it and would comfort you before they punished you.

She’s not annoyed anymore, and a small smile forms across her face. “Telling Gavin would probably feel even better.”

He glares at her, “No.”

"If you don’t do it soon, somebody else will come and snatch him away from you," she teases.

"Oh, please. This isn’t some shitty Taylor Swift song. Nobody’s going to be interested in the British idiot with a big nose." he states cruelly, but Lindsay sees the hint of a smile on his face.

"You are." she smirks.

"I don’t count.  _I’m_  an idiot.”

*

Ray always hated math class. He was never good at numbers or problem solving like his brother Ryan is, so he usually spends his time texting Courtney when the teacher isn’t looking, or talking to Gavin (who sits next to him.)

Class has only just started, so he lets himself delve into talking about the new Grand Theft Auto game with his brother before the teacher begins the lesson.

This is the only class they have without Michael, which right now is a good thing. He was in a pissy mood this morning, and Gavin kept annoying him. Getting away for an hour was such a relief. Maybe he’d be cooled down after math was over.

Then he notices somebody walk into the classroom that he’s not familiar with.

"Hey, who’s that?" Ray asks, nodding his head to the front of the room.

Gavin turns to look, and sees a tall boy with short black hair. Before he can answer Ray’s question with an ‘I don’t know’, the teacher speaks up.

"Everybody, we have a foreign exchange student joining us today from England." she puts a hand on his shoulder, and he gives a little wave to the students. Everybody just stares at him curiously. "His name is Dan, and he’ll be here for the rest of the year. I want somebody to help show him around."

Nobody speaks and Ray assumes it’s because the guy looks like he could beat anybody in this room up without even lifting a finger.  _He most definitely works out_ , he thinks to himself.

"Me! I’ll do it, Mrs. Browne!" Gavin calls out, raising his hand in the air.

Ray rolls his eyes when everybody turns to look at them. Leave it to Gavin to draw every bit of attention possible. He just  _had_ to scream it out to everybody in the room. But he’s used to Gavin’s overly excitable ways by now.

"You can take the empty seat next to Gavin." she instructs.

The guy walks over and puts his books on desk top. Gavin’s immediately friendly and kind towards him, and Ray smirks because he almost feels bad for this Dan kid.

"Hello! My name’s Gavin! I’m originally from England too!" he sticks his hand out for the other boy to shake, and he accepts it.

Although Dan seems nice, Ray’s also worried for his brother’s safety. The guy could probably kill him with one punch.

"I’m Ray, I’m Gavin’s younger brother." he feels the need to make himself known.

Gavin begins quickly talking to Dan about the school and asking him what the schools are like back in England. Even Ray’s enjoying it because this guy Dan actually seems pretty cool. Soon they’re all laughing with each other and when Mrs. Browne scolds them for being loud, they all snicker to each other quietly.

Dan’s nice. He’s not mean and intimidating like Ray had originally thought. He doesn’t even look like he’d be that sort of guy in the first place when he watches Dan laugh out loud at some dumb joke Gavin makes.

None of the three boys paid any attention to the math lesson that day. Clearly way too immersed in talking to their new friend.

"I used to live in England, but I moved here after Geoff and Griffon adopted me." Gavin explains easily.

No topic was taboo for Gavin. He loved talking about his family and if anybody asked he was eager to fill them in on the basics.

"Who are Geoff and Griffon?" Dan asks.

"Our parents," Ray replies.

"So are you two adoptive brothers?"

"Yup. Ray loves me." Gavin grins.

He rolls his eyes and looks at Dan, “Gavin is the most annoying little shit you’ll ever meet in your life.”

Dan laughs out loud at that as Gavin tries to argue that he isn’t.

*

"There’s the gym!" Ray points to the big doors at the far end of the hall.

"That’s the library!" Gavin points to the nearest door on their left.

It was obvious to tell that a friendship with Dan was already forming. He was a cool guy and was super nice. His sense of humor was a lot like theirs, and they found out that he even played video games!

"Oh! And there’s Michael!" Gavin shouts, hopping up and down with his arms flailing in the air. He’s desperate to get his friend’s attention, so he continues to scream down the hall "Michael! Over here!" even though everybody in the hall has turned to look at him.

"As you can tell, Gavin has no shame." Ray mutters to Dan.

"I can see that." he snickers.

"Shut the fuck up, Gavin. Holy shit, calm down!" Michael yells. Everybody in the school is used to Gavin’s cheery attitude, and Michael’s…not so cheery attitude. So they don’t think much of it when they hear the shouting that’s bouncing off the walls.

Gavin grins and turns to Dan before Michael makes it to them. “That’s Michael. He’s been my best friend since forever and he’s Ray’s brother.”

Dan nods, absorbing the information. They’ve been giving him little quickbits of info on people and places in the school. He’s only been here for a few hours and he already knows the basics.

"Would you stop screaming down the hall like an idiot?" Michael questions once he’s finally standing in front of them.

"Sorry, Michael. I’m just really eager for you to meet our new friend!" Gavin smiles, moving so that he’s standing next to Dan. He puts a hand on the guys shoulder and then says to Michael again, "He’s from England like me!"

Michael notices Gavin’s hand resting on Dan’s shoulder. And he doesn’t like it.

"My name’s Dan, and judging by all of Gav’s hollering, I can assume you’re Michael?" he smiles warmly, and puts his hand out for him to shake.

Michael takes it reluctantly. Dan’s grip is unintentionally a little stronger than he’d anticipated.

He still hadn’t really grown out of that ‘I’m not very fond of others my age’ stage. Hence why he usually only ever hung out with Ray and Gavin at school. Everybody else sort of pissed him off.

And even though Dan seemed nice, Michael couldn’t take his eyes off of Gavin’s hand on his shoulder, or the way he smiled when he looked up at him.

Fuck. Now’s not the time to be a jealous little shit.

"Yeah, I’m Michael. That’s a normal occurrence with Gavin." he states, not really putting any emotion into his voice. Dan doesn’t seem to notice though, and just smirks at the thought of Gavin doing that all the time.

Dan likes these guys. They’re funny, and they’re nice. He can already tell that Michael is sort of hesitant about him, but that doesn’t change his view on him. All three of them are funny and unique in their own way. Like a big group of misfits that would be lost on their own, but work so well together.

"You’ll have to get used to it." Ray snickers, and Gavin shoves him playfully.

Michael’s face drops even more into an expressionless zombie than it already was. Dan’s going to be hanging around them long enough to be able to ‘get used to’ Gavin’s antics?

He doesn’t like it.

*

Dan’s a really nice guy. He’s funny, and he’s easy to get along with. He and Gavin have become such close friends in such a short amount of time.

Ray’s good friends with him too, but Michael doesn’t pay attention to that. He pays attention to the jokingly affectionate way that he and Gavin call each other “B”, and the way that Gavin is always texting him pictures where his face is all messed up and funny looking.

It’s not fair. He used to do dumb things like that with  _him._

"That Dan kid is a real laugh." Geoff muses as he turns on the Xbox.

They’re having ‘Game Night’, and Michael’s already dreading it. He’s been in a bad mood ever since Dan came around. And that was only a week ago.

Game Night usually consisted of Michael, Gavin, Ray, and Ryan, and Geoff all playing video games together. Their Uncle Jack would usually come over and play with them, and those nights were the most fun, because it meant another person to tease and make fun of. Lindsay had recently joined in, but no matter how many times Geoff told her to play with them, she opted to just watching.

Even though it was usually the same general idea every time. Ray winning easily, Gavin being an idiot and dying every three seconds, Michael getting angry over his inability to play, it was still fun. It was like a tradition that they never wanted to fade.

"Yeah, he’s fucking hilarious." Michael mutters.

Geoff raises an eyebrow at his sons attitude. He didn’t know that Michael wasn’t fond of Dan, but that much was obvious now. Lindsay’s mood grows suspicious as she and Geoff share a look.

"Gavin! You’re missing game night!" Ray yells.

"What is game night!?" Gavin screams back.

"Shut up!" Michael screechs angrily, almost cutting off the end of Gavin’s question.

"You fell right into that one, Ray." Geoff tells him, and Ray rolls his eyes, knowing that he’s right.

Every week Gavin asks that same question the first time somebody says “Game Night.” They always try to get through the activity without him screaming it like a maniac, but it hardly ever works.

They only did it one time, and that was when Michael tackled him to the ground when he has half way through yelling the question. He held Gavin in place, with his hand over his mouth, throughout the entire game. Needless to say, Michael and Gavin didn’t end up participating in that one. But it was pretty funny for everybody involved.

"I’m here!" Gavin states happily as he walks into the room.

"Finally." Michael mutters under his breath.

This is normal behavior for him, but usually not for this long.

He doesn’t like Dan. He doesn’t like how charming and nice he is towards everybody, and is able to impress everyone with his manners and shit. Why is Gavin hanging out with him and texting him so much? It’s not fucking fair.

Michael plays the game without really paying attention to it. He doesn’t talk much or crack jokes like usual, and luckily nobody really notices it. Besides Geoff and Lindsay, who keep looking back and forth from the game, Michael’s angry demeanor, and to each other.

"Are we still playing baseball tomorrow?" Ray questions as he kills Geoff’s character easily.

"Yup."

That’s another thing they do every once in a while. They’ll play some kind of sport out in their backyard together just for fun. One time it was just Gavin and Uncle Jack playing tennis, while everybody laughed at how badly Gavin lost. The whole thing is kind of dumb, but it’s a nice way to do things together as a family.

It’s also Michael’s birthday tomorrow. So he got to choose what game they played and he picked baseball. Then they’d go inside, have cake, and then probably just play video games. Michael’s not exactly big on birthdays, and neither is anybody else in the family. So doing something simple like this is more fun for them.

"Can we invite Dan to come over and play too?" Gavin asks.

"Yeah! Dan the man!" Ray cheers.

Michael doesn’t say anything, and just clutches his controller harder. Trying to disperse his anger into his grip.

"Sure…If everybody’s okay with it…" Geoff responds hesitantly. Everybody nods and murmurs in agreement, but he only pays attention to Michael’s reaction.

"Sure. Whatever." he mutters, still glaring at the television screen.

*

Geoff walks up the stairs to Michael’s bedroom, and takes a deep breath before knocking.

Confronting Michael about his pissy attitude lately isn’t going to go over well. And trying to make him admit that it’s obviously because of Dan is going to be impossible.

But he’s Michael’s father, and he cares about him. So he has to at least try. Even if there might be bloodshed.

"Go away." he hears Michael’s voice say through the door.

"We gotta talk, buddy."

"No we don’t. Go away."

Geoff sighs before opening the door anyway. Michael’s just sitting at his computer desk, browsing the internet with little interest. He looks deep in thought, andvery annoyed.

"Geoff." he groans, turning over to look him in the eye, "I told you to go."

"I don’t care." Geoff walks over to the bed and sits down on the edge of it. "I’ve noticed that you’ve been a lot…angrier than you usually are."

"What’s your point?"

Michael knows that Geoff knows. Yes. He hates Dan because Gavin seems to be totally in love with him. But that doesn’t mean that he wants to talk about it. He’d rather just lay here in his bed, wallowing in self hatred, Dan hatred, and a little bit of Gavin hatred.

But mostly self hatred. He hates himself for being in love with Gavin in the first place. Allowing himself to get so immersed in it that he’s gotten hurt like this. He’s let an annoying, stupid, British, fucktard hurt him, and he doesn’t even realize it.

All because of some dumb foreign exchange student named Dan. Who’s literally perfect for Gavin in every way that Michael isn’t.

"What’s wrong?" he asks.

"Nothing."

Geoff sighs again. Trying to get Michael to open up isn’t always an easy thing to do, he’s lucky he got him to talk about Gavin that one night. “Come on, Michael. You can talk to me.”

"I don’t want to."

He’s not giving in this time. Lindsay already tried to talk to him earlier, and he gave her the same responses. He doesn’t want to talk about it, and he’d rather just pretend that he’s totally fine.

"Are you actually okay with Dan coming over tomorrow and playing ball with us?"

"Yes." he hisses between his teeth, trying as hard as he can not to explode at Geoff, "I don’t fucking care, okay?"

"…Well as long you’re sure." Geoff watches his son turn away from him, "It is _your_ birthday after all.”

He knows his son is stubborn and isn’t going to admit to it anytime soon. It’ll be better for him just to back off, even if Michael’s obviously giving himself a hard time right now.

"I’m sure."

"Okay…Take it easy, Michael." he comfortingly pats his sons shoulder before leaving the room.

Once he hears the door close, Michael lets out a sigh of his own and buries his face into his hands.

He can’t let this stupid jealousy consume him. If Gavin likes Dan, then fuck it. Who cares, right? Gavin’s just an asshole piece of shit that’s he had to deal with for ten years anyways. It’ll be nice to get rid of him and make him somebody else’s problem.

That stupid laugh he has, and the idiotic squeaking noises. His big-ass nose. That dumb messy hair that sticks out in a million directions and makes him look like a moron. His eyes that Michael can never quite tell what color they really are.

"Fuck." Michael murmurs to himself, "I got it bad."

*

Michael wakes up in the morning to the feeling of somebody violently jumping on both his bed and him.

"Happy seventeenth birthday, Michael!" a familiar British voice yells at the top of it’s lungs.

He groans and opens an eye to see Gavin wildly jumping around on his bed and him.

"Stop jumping on me, you asshole!" he sits up and shoves him off of the bed. Gavin falls to the floor in a messy heap, with his limbs flailing about, but he jumps up quickly with the grin still on his face.

Michael can’t help but smirk at him.

"You’re the birthday boy!" Gavin cheers and then launches himself at Michael again to wrap his arms around his neck.

He rolls his eyes but hugs him back. He’s so warm and cuddly, and Michael hates himself to relishing in it for the few moments that it lasts. When Gavin finally pulls back he feels that annoying sense of loss again and wishes he had him bundled up back in his arms.

Fuck, seventeen is already off to a bad start.

But Michael’s used to this. Every year Gavin is the first one to wake him up and wish him happy birthday. And it’s always done in a loud and annoying way.

"What hour of the day is it this time?" he asks, not looking at the clock. Usually Gavin wakes him up as early as possible. Sometimes it’ll still be dark out.

"It’s actually one in the afternoon."

"What!? How did I sleep in that long!? Why didn’t anybody wake me!?"

"Mum and dad said for you to sleep in. It’s _your_  birthday after all, you deserve some rest.” Gavin smirks, and then boops him on the nose. Michael scowls and swats his hand away.

He did have trouble falling asleep last night. Internally fighting with himself over his stupid crush on Gavin and trying to figure out how to erase it permanently from his brain. He ended up just falling asleep out of exhaustion.

"They called me up to get you now because we’re about to start baseball." Gavin continues.

"Why  _you_ though?”

"Because I begged them to let me do it," he grins, and then finally gets off of Michael’s bed. "Now get up and get dressed! We got some ball to play! We’re going to be on the same team!"

"Perfect." Michael mutters sarcastically as he rubs his eyes, "Do you even know how to  _play_ baseball?”

"Not a clue."

"Even more perfect."

*

Geoff and Gavin are both cackling to themselves like idiots, hunched over trying not to fall down from laughing so hard.

"That was like the baseball equivalent of running to a door, hearing a dog bark, and then running away." Gavin points out.

Geoff starts laughing even harder. “What the fuck is that!?…” he tries to control himself, yet fails horribly.

Everybody else starts laughing too at Gavin’s stupidity, and Geoff’s uncontrollable laughter.

They’re all outside in the backyard playing baseball. It was a beautiful day outside and they’d been playing for about an hour or two so far.

"Is that something that people in England  _do_!?”

Gavin tries to control his own laughter as he attempts to explain himself, “There’s something about not knowing there’s a dog really close to you that is always very startling.”

His explanation only results in more laughter.

He’s once again proved that he doesn’t know anything about sports. Once they tried to play football and somehow managed to let the others make him quarterback. It was the most painful game of football Michael has ever played considering he was on Gavin’s team.

"You’re a fucking idiot!" Michael laughs.

"I’ve never played baseball before!"

"Yeah, that’s pretty obvious!"

They let Gavin be the pitcher at one point, and Lindsay was up first to bat. He somehow managed to hit her straight in the mouth with the ball, and now she’s sitting on the back porch with a icepack to her face.

Needless to say, Gavin wasn’t going to be pitching again. Michael ended up taking over for him, and he was left to catch the ball and try to get people out. Which also didn’t go over so well.

But trying to explain the rules to him whilst in the middle of the game was hilarious, since he just couldn’t seem to grasp all of the concepts. He’d end up just running around with the ball in his hand, trying to figure out what to do, while everybody on the opposite teams were “stealing bases all over the gaff”, as he would say.

But Michael was happy because it was his seventeenth birthday, and he got to spend it with his family. When Gavin invited Dan over he said that he  _might_ be able to make it, and he had yet to show up. So all in all, Michael was in a great mood.

"Come on, you little bitch!" Geoff calls out to him, as he stands there with the bat ready to swing.

Michael chuckles and pitches the ball. After it’s been hit, it flies over his head and he turns around, hoping that Gavin’s the one scrambling around to catch it. He’s not disappointed.

They separated into two teams. One consisted of Geoff, Ray, and Lindsay. While the other was Griffon, Michael, and Gavin. Ryan was the goal keeper, and the catcher. The teams were now uneven due to Lindsay injury, but it didn’t really matter to them. They were just playing for fun in their backyard anyways.

"Get the ball, Gavin!" Michael yells across the yard.

"I can’t find it! It landed in the tall grass, Michael!"

"You idiot! Hurry up! He’s going to get a-"

“ _Home run_!” Ryan yells as Geoff makes it back to the home base.

Everybody bursts out into laughter again at Gavin’s incompetence. Their teams were pretty even in the scores. But that was probably because having Gavin on their team was equal to the other teams disadvantage of having only two players.

The game so far consisted of Gavin making idiotic mistakes, throwing the ball to the completely wrong person, explaining the rules to him over and over again, making dumb jokes at each other, Lindsay getting hurt, Michael yelling at Gavin, and Geoff laughing so loud he claimed he was probably going to shit his pants.

He considered it to be one of the best birthday’s he’s ever had. Michael loved his family, and he loved spending time with them. It helped him take his mind off of the whole ‘Dan situation’ and just let loose and laugh a little.

"I found the ball." Gavin offers as he walks up to him, holding it in his glove.

"You’re a little shit." Michael states, and then takes the ball from him. He’s still smiling though. Just watching Gavin try to look apologetic is enough to make anybody laugh, because we all know that he doesn’t actually feel sorry for it.

He’s thankful that Dan isn’t here, because he likes being able to spend quality time with Gavin like this. Even though it sounds selfish, Dan’s been eating away all of his time and Michael hasn’t gotten to see much of him lately. Even though he’s trying to oppress any feelings he has for him, he still misses hanging out one on one with him.

"Dan the man!" Ray exclaims from his place at home base, where he’s getting ready to hit the ball.

Gavin’s head snaps around at the speed of light to watch Dan entering their backyard and a huge grin spreads across his face. Just watching it makes Michael’s mouth drop into a scowl.

Dan just  _had_ to come and ruin his birthday.

For the past couple of days, Michael had been trying to think of legitimate reasons to hate Dan, other than ‘he and Gavin are  _really_ close’. But he just can’t think of any. He’s funny, nice, charming, friendly. He doesn’t get mad and scream out in anger every time something annoying happens.

It’s just not fair for one person to be so perfect.

So Michael has come to the conclusion that he hates Dan because he’s  _too_ perfect.

The only possible negative trait is that he can be kind of an idiot sometimes. But it’s in that hilariously charming way that Gavin is. And it’s just  _not fair_.

Gavin immediately runs over to Dan and launches himself into his friends arms. Dan’s hardly prepared but manages to catch him anyways. Everybody in the yard laughs at their childish antics, except for Michael. Who just stands there, silently fuming in the middle of the lawn.

"Sorry I’m late, everybody!" he calls out once Gavin finally lets him go and returns to the ground.

"You can be on our team, Dan. We sort of lost a player after Gavin hit Lindsay in the mouth with the ball." Geoff explains, then turns to the back porch where she’s still sitting with the icepack to her face, and calls out to her, "You okay, Linds?"

"Yup! Don’t worry about me!" she laughs, even though her mouth is still a slightly bloody and swollen mess. Gavin can’t help but giggle mischievously at it though. He didn’t mean to hit her, but it ended up being pretty funny.

"Here." Ray hands him the bat, "You can take a turn. We’re winning because Gavin’s an idiot."

"Hey! We’re still a very strong team!" Griffon argues.

Gavin laughs and playfully tells her to go to first base before she starts a fist fight and gets ejected from the game.

Michael hates this. He hates that everybody just loves Dan. Why can’t there be one person on his side that sees how painfully annoying he really is.

He gets ready to throw the ball, and sees Lindsay cheer out of the corner of his eyes. She’s failing around her arm in excitement, the one that’s not holding the ice to her mouth. She’s obviously still in a lot of pain.

An idea sparks in Michael’s head.

When he throws the ball it doesn’t bounce harshly off of the bat like it should. It hits Dan directly in the eye before he can dodge it.

It reminds Michael of something that would happen in a comedy movie, where the character always gets hurt in a funny way that makes everybody laugh or causes a video montage to end.

Dan immediately drops the bat and brings his hand up to hold his face in pain. Everybody rushes towards him, asking if he’s alright and if he’s hurt.

"Oh my gosh!" Michael cries out, "I’m so sorry! It was an accident, I swear!" but in the back of his mind he smirks.

Okay, so  _maybe_ he’s kind of an immature asshole. Throwing baseballs in Dan’s eyes isn’t going to solve anything, but damn did it ever feel good.

And it felt even better when he looked over and saw Gavin laughing. His loud uncontrollable giggles and squeaks seeped through the hand that was covering his mouth, and he was almost about to fall to the ground.

Gavin’s never really had much empathy over things like that. If somebody gets hurt, it’s hilarious to him. As long as their not dead or crying, then he’s going to laugh and he’s going to laugh  _hard_ at your misfortune. After all, everybody laughs at him when he gets hurt, so what’s the harm?

"It’s alright, I’m alright!" Dan calls out.

Michael runs over with the rest of them to see if he’s alright. He didn’t actually mean to blind the guy or anything. He just wanted to let out some of his frustration out on him.

"Oh, sweetie, let me see." Griffon says softly as she tries to pry his hand away from his eye.

It’s already starting to swell a little bit but other than that it doesn’t look too bad.

"Is he okay?" Lindsay questions, still holding her icepack.

"I think so." Griffon says while examining him, "It’s swelling and it might bruise. We’ll get some ice on it."

"I’m fine, it doesn’t even hurt that much." Dan tries to insist, but nobody’s really willing to take his word for it.

"Man, this is the most violent game we’ve ever played." Ray points out while smirking.

"I didn’t mean too!" Michael says, and even though that’s a lie, he feels guilty for it now. Being a childish prick and hurting Dan is only going to make him the bully in this situation.

Dan technically hasn’t done anything wrong. He was just a new kid that wanted to make new friends. He’s from England and it seems normal for him to befriend the only other British kid in the whole school. The more he thinks about it, he realizes that Gavin was probably the one to make the first move in their friendship.

"It’s fine, Michael. I don’t blame you. Could have happened to anybody." Dan grins through the pain, while he goes back to holding his face.

The stinging sensation of guilt clutches Michael even harder.

"I think we’ve had enough baseball for one day." Geoff snickers, "Come on, let’s go inside, have cake, and get some ice on that eye of yours."

"Yeah! Injured kids club!" Lindsay cheers and she high fives Dan with a grin. He’s a lot taller than her so she has to jump to reach it.

"Leeeet’s stop!" Ray calls out.

"Hey, Michael!" Dan says to him, and he prepares to get punched in the face, but Dan just grins, "I never got to say happy birthday yet!"

He forces a smile, “Thanks, man.”

Michael feels like the biggest prick in the world as they walk back into the house.

*

"Happy Birthday to you!" everybody sings loudly.

Michael’s sitting at the table, his eyebrows raised in amusement at his family’s horrible singing skills.

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Lindsay and Dan have icepacks held to their faces, but they’re still singing along as cheerfully as everybody else.

Griffons leaning back against Geoff, who has his arms around her. They sway back and forth to the off-tune song as they sing along, watching Michael’s face as he looks over his family members.

"Happy Birthday dear, Michael!" they sing, but instead of saying his name, Geoff says "shit head." Which makes everybody stop singing for a moment to laugh.

And then he looks at Gavin, who’s looking around at everybody just as much as he is. He looks up at Dan, who’s just slightly taller than him. And his grin widens with amusement at the icepack he’s holding to his eye. He laughs while singing but then turns back to Michael for the final part of the song.

"Happy birthday to you!"

Ray drags out the last part dramatically, and it makes everybody laugh again.

Birthday’s aren’t taken too serious in this family. The most they’ve ever done is go out somewhere like the movies or the beach. But they  _always_ have a delicious ice-cream cake from their favourite shop.

"Our baby boy is seventeen!" Ray yells out jokingly.

"Blow out the candles!" somebody cheers, and judging by how muffled it sounds, it’s probably Lindsay. Usually she’s a really good singer, but since her mouth is only just getting the feeling back into it, she sounds like she just got back from the dentist. Gavin hit her  _a lot_ harder than Michael hit Dan.

"Make a wish first, Michael!" Gavin yells out excitedly as he bounces in place. That annoying grin is still spread across his face as he watches him.

Michael tortures Gavin all the time. He’s a total asshole and he’s always putting him in a choke hold or punching him in some way. He loves to insult him and say mean things.

Dan’s a nice guy. And he and Gavin are a lot alike. They’d be good for one another. Dan would probably be a lot better for him than Michael ever would.

And when Michael realizes this, he feels even more horrible than he did before. He wants what’s best for Gavin, (That’s what real love is, isn’t it?) and if he’d be happier with somebody else…then so be it. Michael doesn’t want to get in the way of his happiness.

So even though wishing on birthday candles is total bullshit, he wishes for Gavin’s happiness. Michael’s willing to watch from the sidelines, because he knows Dan would make his boy happier than he ever could.

*

His door creaks slowly creaks open and Michael smiles when he sees Gavin’s big dumb nose peak through.

"Knock knock." he says.

"What the hell are you doing here, dude?" Michael snickers.

Gavin smiles and walks in, “Came to wish you happy seventeenth birthday for the last time.”

"It’s 11:49 at night, Gav. My birthday’s almost over."

"Well yeah, this means I’ll be the last!"

"You’re an idiot."

They settle into a comfortable silence as they just sit on Michael’s bed, as he continues to flip through the pages in his book without much interest. It’s just some stupid book that he’s required to read for school, so he’s not paying much attention.

Gavin’s content to just sit there, not speaking a word as his eyes look around Michael’s room, even though he’s been in there countless times.

Then without any warning Gavin begins talking again, “Do you like Dan, Michael?”

He looks up from his book in confusion, wondering what could have brought on this question. “Uh, yeah. He’s a cool guy.”

Gavin lets out an annoyed sigh, but he’s smiling so Michael knows that he’s not being serious, then says knowingly “I know you hate him.”

"I do not. I just sort of…I don’t know. Shut up." he mutters, not really wanting to get into it.

It’s quiet for another few moments.

Instead of texting Dan, or talking to Dan, or whatever, he’s sitting here with Michael. Willing to spend the last few hours of the day sitting on his bed as Michael reads some boring book for school, just because he wants to be with him on the end of his birthday.

"Do  _you_  like Dan?” Michael asks before he can stop himself.

"Yeah, he’s a good friend. Why?"

"…No reason." Michael shrugs, and he knows he should stop there, but he can’t help himself. "Are you sure he’s just a  _friend_?”

Gavin’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “…Yeah? What are you on about?”

"I mean…you’ve just been acting pretty buddy buddy with him lately. Is…something else…going on?" he tries to make it sound as less awkward as possible, but it doesn’t work.

"You mean…do I  _like him_ -like him?”

Michael suppresses the urge to roll his eyes, “Yeah.”

"Of course not! Dan and I are just friends! Nothing more!" he insists.

Michael’s confused for a moment, “…Okay.” he nods as though he understands, but he actually doesn’t. They’re just friends? They can’t be. Gavin must just be acting bashful or embarrassed.

Gavin lets out a mischievous snicker, “I know you’re jealous of him.”

"No, I-"

"You think he loves me as much as you love me. But don’t worry, Dan and I are just friends. No need to hate him for that." Gavin smirks, but doesn’t look toward Michael to see his reaction, and pretends that Michael’s room is interesting to study once again.

Michael’s head snaps up to look at Gavin, eyes as wide .

"W-What!?" Michael yells, his eyebrows raised in confusion and surprise, "What are you talking about!?"

Gavin  _knows_ about his feelings toward him!? How long has he known!? Did he just figure it out all on his own? Is Michael  _really_ that bad at hiding it!?

He’s not able to think more about it because Gavin just continues on with a knowing smirk, “A few weeks ago I hear mum and dad talking at like three in the morning. They were freaking out about how you…had a crush on me, and stuff.”

Michael feels his face start to warm up when Gavin finally turns to look at him and smiles like the cheeky bastard he is. “Why the hell were you even awake at three in the morning, you idiot?”

"Because dad came over and was pounding on the door really loud! I didn’t know what was going on, so I went to down the stairs. When I found out that it was just dad I was about to go back to bed, but then I heard them talking about me and you."

Michael was going to  _kill_ Geoff for telling Griffon, and for gabbing about it at three o’clock in the morning. He figured if anybody was going to accidentally let something slip then it would be Lindsay.

He really wants to just to bury himself in a hole and die.

"Fuck." he mutters under his breath after he tries to turn his attention back to his book. He knows that acting as though Gavin didn’t just say that is pretty childish and would never work, but he just doesn’t know what else to do in this situation.

Gavin’s going to hate him. He’s going to tell him that he’s stupid and never want to talk to him again. Goddamn, why did he have to let his dumb feelings get in the way of everything. At least he had Gavin as a friend earlier, now he’s not going to have anything at all.

Maybe he’s just pissed off.

He’s pissed off that Geoff and Griffon gossip so loudly, pissed off that Gavin overheard, pissed off that he was so jealous of Dan, and most of all he’s just pissed off that he’s such a whiny little brat that couldn’t keep his own emotions in check.

Gavin notices the annoyed look on his face and his smile softens a bit, “Why are you so mad?”

"Just shut up, Gavin." Maybe it’ll be easier for him if he acts as though he hates Gavin back. He wants to go punch a wall or something, just to let out all of his frustration

Michael doesn’t want to deal with the rejection that he’s probably about to give him, and he doesn’t want to shrug it off as though it doesn’t mean anything to him.

He continues to glare down at his book, but suddenly he feels soft and gentle fingers tilt his head upwards until he’s eye to eye with Gavin, who is now kneeled up on the bed, sitting so close to him that their noses are almost touching.

"Don’t worry, Michael. I love you too." he whispers quietly, as a dumb grin is still stretched across his face. He leans even closer, so much that their lips are about to touch, and as much as Michael wants to let it happen, his anger gets the better of him.

His eyebrows furrow and he puts two hands on Gavin’s chest and roughly punches him away once the realization sinks in. “You asshole! You like me back!?”

Gavin doesn’t take any offense to the harsh shove he was given, “Yeah. Of course I do.”

"Fuck you! You’ve known about this since that night I told Geoff!? That was way before you met Dan! Why were you being all close and flirty and shit with him if you like me?"

Gavin just snickers, and then shrugs his shoulders, “Because you’re cute when you’re jealous.”

"You’re a dick."

"It was pretty amusing, but then you threw a baseball at Dan’s face and I knew I had to tell you the truth then before you murdered the lad." he says, still smirking at the fact that Dan got hurt. One thing Gavin will never gain is empathy for when his close friends get injured.

Michael wants to ask more about the whole Dan thing, but he just doesn’t care about that right now. He doesn’t want things to get awkward, but Gavin’s always been oblivious to situations like that so Michael’s the only one that would feel the uncomfortable air surrounding them anyways.

He attempts to sound uninterested. He doesn’t like that Gavin’s had the upper hand on him this entire time. That’s usually not the way their relationship works.

"So… you  _do_ like me back…” he tries to look anyway other than his eyes.

"Yup."

"…Since when?"

"Since always. Probably when I first met you and you thought I was an annoying little piss pot."

Michael can’t help but let out a breathy laugh at that memory. Now that he looks back on it that might have been when his feelings first started to arise too. When Gavin somehow washed away that angry annoying side and just wanted him to play out in the backyard and wasn’t afraid of him like all of the other children were.

Then Gavin starts holding back a laugh.

"What’s so funny?" Michael asks.

"I just can’t believe you told Geoff and Griffon. Those two are maniacs with these kinds of things."

"Yeah, I sort of realize my mistake now." he mutters under his breath.

But he doesn’t actually consider it a mistake. If he hadn’t told Geoff then Gavin wouldn’t have found out by being the sneaky little asshole that he is. Then who knows if they’d be sitting here like they are now.

"Wait, if you’ve liked me for so long, they why haven’t you ever  _told_  me?”

"Why didn’t  _you_ tell  _me_?”

"Touché.”

"But honestly it’s probably because I didn’t think you’d feel the same way. I’m always getting on your nerves and stuff, not really boy-you’d-fall-in-love-with material."

Michael rolls his eyes at Gavin acting so bashful.

"That’s probably part of the reason why I love you so much." he admits quietly to himself, but Gavin hears it and that familiar grin stretches across his face once again.

He reaches out and holds Michael’s face in his hands, bringing them closer like they were moments before he was pushed away.

"I love you too, Michael."

This time his face doesn’t heat up with anger or annoyance, “My name is _Michael_ , you idiot.”

He tries to hold back his smile and wants to scowl at Gavin  _so_ badly but he feels the smile form on his face, and when Gavin notices it his own grin gets wider.

And when Gavin soft lips connect with his own, he can’t help but melt into it and love every second of the simple yet sweet kiss. Because Gavin is everything that Michael could have ever hoped for.


End file.
